I never discredited Lacy and never will, he's one of my favorite fighters why the hell would I discredit him?, I'm just telling it like it is. After a big beating like that it's hard to imagine someone coming back totally better than before, better in terms of skills/tactics I would believe but overrall?, it's just too difficult to believe. He's a human being after all, not a machine that can be repaired, every punch those guys absord takes from their life and Lacy absorbed over 1,000 POWER PUNCHES that night, that's quite sick and I'm glad to see Lacy coming out healthy enough to put on another fight. As far as I remember, the first time Lacy and Tsypko met Lacy was dominating till the stoppage, rematch took place to settle the score and it wasn't really anything dominating, Lacy was nothing like he used to, if you can't see that then I don't know what to tell you. I'm a big fan of his and have seen ALL his amateur and professional fights and HAVE them stored with me, the last thing I'll do is claim he's not like before just for the hell of it, he's one of my favorite, coming back like before will excite me but I just don't see it happening, especially not after a big injury like that and 1 year lay-off.
The rotator cuff came late, that's what I remember from his interview after the fight but then again I could have remembered wrong. If it came early then that's good news for me since I'll still have more hope than I already do that Lacy can still do it and shine like he once did.
Hope it's true but Ibeabuchi/Tua is TOTALLY different here. None of the boxers was nearly knocked out numerous times during the fight, Lacy was nearly knocked down/out MANY times especially the 7th and 12th. Doubtful that he still has it but I'll hope he does. By the way, 10 pitty patter?, you must be joking, every punch Joe landed Lacy felt it WELL, you can tell CLEARLY after every punch that lands Lacy would go stiff and not do much in return.
Yes I noticed that, it was more of a push than a knockdown in the 12th and thanks for the confirmation about the cuff above. :good
I'm not sure who it was, but someone clearly has gotten under your skin. Chill. I agree that Jeff needs to be evaluated more fully before we can truly assess just how much damage he suffered at the hands of Calzaghe, but even early in the fight against Tsypko he appeared more cautious than usual, especially when his opponent fired back. Jeff did hurt VT early, however, and his right hand was straighter than it had been in other fights. But his "wee bit" wobble later in the fight was something never before seen from him to that extent. And he was unable to regain his balance for a relatively long period of time. Maybe it was the cumulative effect of fighting with a major shoulder injury for 25 minutes, but I worried then as now that it was evidence he has been softened up. More to the point, this is only the latest example of you refusing to acknowledge precedent or the absurdity of your wild-ass assumptions. Earlier during the MK/JC threads, you could not bring yourself to acknowledge that Calzaghe may get old overnight. Never mind that boxing is rich with examples of this very thing happening -- and in particular, for fighters relying on speed and reflexes -- you insisted that Calzaghe would not get old prior to some Blocky-approved point somewhere down the line. You cannot possibly know that, no matter how much grandstanding you exhibit here. No one, even Joe himself, could know that. And now, with Lacy, you seemingly can't draw the parallels between Lacy, Davey Moore, David Reid, and many others. Fighters get ruined, Blocky, and in some cases it's happened in far less brutal circumstances than what Lacy received against Calzaghe. I hope you're right that Lacy is every bit the fighter he was 18 months ago, but history suggests he very well may not be. The Tsypko fight didn't offer solid evidence either way, but some of what I saw concerned me a great deal.
You anticipated the Roy Jones example, because it's an easy fit. People age differently, and in a high-performance endeavor such as prizefighting, even a little slippage can produce drastic results. Based on what? Even baseball players generally get old prior to that age. Even a dedicated warrior like Hopkins mostly had lost his legs by his late 30s, and he didn't depend on them the way Calzaghe does. Jones looked great against Woods in fall 2002, and very weak against Tarver one year later. Sure, weight loss and all that, but he did more than "get caught" by Johnson -- he was completely listless, legs totally shot. Doesn't it occur to you that you might be wrong about Lacy? You do acknowledge that he suffered the kind of beating that has ruined other fighters, right? And given a major surgery on top of that, plus now that he's over 30, and you think he'll get progressively better? I disagree that he matches up with Calzaghe better than Kessler. But there's no point in getting into that discussion on this thread.