20 Years Ago Today: Joe Calzaghe Defeats Jeff Lacy by UD

Good schooling. Crawford vs Spence is a much better domination of a top opponent example though. Even that Spence was much better than Lacey.

 

Wait what? Is that more baba tears? LOL

 

Serge, are your baba tears flowing. LOL. Just messing with you brother. A little banter between boxing fans never hurt nobody.

 

I continue to be astounded by the impact this win had on UK fight fans.

It was like all this pressure had been building inside of them after nearly a century of being dumped on by US fight fans, and they finally let it out.

Since they never really embraced Lennox Lewis until he retired, it was as if Calzaghe ushered in the great run of UK fighters in the decades that followed.

But the win itself over Lacy, who had never really proven much, wasn't even Calzaghe's best win. Which is why it's still a head-scratcher.

I'm happy for all the UK fans. But, Jermain Taylor dominated Lacy, too. Nobody gave two craps about it.

 

This fight happened back in the dark ages when it wasn't easy to get overseas fights in the US. The illegal stream I found to follow the fight at that time was audio only, felt like I was listening to James Braddock-Max Baer on the radio in the 1930s, could hear the announcers and crowd noise. And I listened incredulous that Calzaghe was not only winning but dominating. I thought like everybody else Lacy would win and Calzaghe was protecting his single belt for so long and would get found out. But we all found out instead, didn't we? Then around Round 8, my illegal stream cut out saying I was committing a rights violation to listen to it. So I logged in to ESB the next day to get the news. Can I call a fight I didn't actually see one of my favorite fight memories?

 

Spence had his brains scrambled by a Ferrari

 

Hard to believe this was 20 years ago. Absolute schooling by Calzaghe I’m not even sure Lacy landed a meaningful punch The whole fight. It was literally death by 1,000 punches. Was a fun time to be on this site as well. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen but I wasn’t surprised at the result. Just a masterful performance by Calzaghe. You have to give Lacy credit for traveling for that fight a lot of American fighters wouldn’t have done that.

 

Died on the vine

 

It's puzzling isn't it?

We're talking about a prospect, a genuine prospect, who went and fought on foreign soil, and lost by decision. This happens all the time. This happens at the level of Jeff Lacey often. He went on to do nothing.

Kovalev's win over fellow Welshman Cleverly, for instance, is a MUCH better win. No one talks about it.

Yet year after year, multiple times a year, there's the same, let's call it..."high five circle" talking about Jeff Lacey. Does Jeff realize he's still so famous despite his boxing career not panning out?

 

Calzaghe won that fight.

 

That was a wild spanking. Lacy was supposed to retire Joe, and the odds were leaning towards that, pre fight. A great win indeed

 

be polite. you gotta let em' have their moment, huh?

 

Calzaghe was a lot better than Froch.
The difference between them is Joe would comfortably outpoint someone like Jermain Taylor with the result never looking in doubt, whereas we saw what happened with Froch going life and death and getting a last minute stoppage while well down on the cards.
Froch was a tough guy but in terms of skills he’s a rung or two below Calzaghe at least

 

I remember always seeing Calzaghe's name on Boxrec or rankings but never seeing him fight. I thought whose this guy with a weird name I cant pronounce whose undefeated after all of these fights. Lacy I had seen but was not fully sold on yet. I was shocked to read the next day the ease to which Calzaghe defeated Lacy.

Its a shame that Lacy never bounced back, I know he had some shoulder injuries afterward. He just never seemed to get his mojo back

I know some people will degrade a win like this due to Lacy not coming back but I am not sure that this is entirely fair. I think we need to rate wins at the time that they happen. What ever occurred following the fight is not necessarily an indicator of what occurred in the ring that night.