Jeff Lacy: What now?

Alot of people were hyped up on him because of his pedigree (00 Olympics) his destruction of Reid and Pemberton, and his incredible physique. He really did look unstoppable for a time, but then again a lot of us Americans had never seen too much of Calzaghe at the time.

 

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he can probably make a bit more money with one more big fight...then its time to go..

 

As a big Lacy fan, I think he's done. He couldn't let his hands go, he had NO snap, NO sharpness, and NO speed. He was lucky that Manfredo was reluctant to let his hands go, otherwise, he probably would have dropped a decision. Granted he was out for a year, but I don't see him being much of a threat anymore.

A good test for him would be Sakio Bika

 

Lacy won a clear decision in a tough fight where he was clearly the better fighter. I thought that for a fight where he is basically working off the ring rust he looked ok.

The Calzaghe fans (i am one but not a blind one) will tell you that Calzaghe ruined Lacy but the facts are that

1) Lacy was a very good fighter but was never really elite to begin with

2) The injury to his left shoulder had a much bigger impact on Lacy's career than the loss to Calzaghe.

 

Yeah, the Calzaghe beating must have hurt his confidence badly, but the rotator cuff injury and surgery has been responsible for his lack of a left hook now.

 

lacy didnt look good against manfredo or in any fights after calzaghe
but i think with the power he has hes always gonna be a dangerous opponent for anybody
the top echelon in the division will always beat him unless there is alot of improvement

 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Dawson is a gifted fighter while Lacy is a body building looking, one dimensional and very limited fighter. My guess is that you never saw Dawson fight. Trust me, as soon as you watch one of his fights, you will get it. :happy

 

What struck me most in the Manfredo fight was the lack of snap on his punches. I've never regarded Lacy as a defensive fighter or a boxer, but he always punched hard. Without that, he frankly doesn't have much to offer. He was "swimming" with his left hook, a sure sign that he isn't confident enough to throw it with abandon.

Having said that, I thought Jeff didn't really throw hard shots at Calzaghe, either. Whether it was too much muscle mass, general overtraining or stagefright on the world stage, he didn't offer much of a performance that night.

He actually punched better at Tsypko in the first two rounds, before hurting his shoulder, than he did against Calzaghe.

 

You are right on. Kessler and Lacy are far more similar than Lacy and Dawson although Kessler is much better right now. Anyone who says otherwise has never seen Dawson fight. Watch what Dawson does to Glen Johnson, the fighter that JC ducked twice. Dawson is a soon to be top 10 p4p if everyone stops ducking him.

 

Many Americans had never heard of JC before the Lacy fight. The only info I had on him before Lacy was that he was always hurt and he almost pulled out of the fight as he had done on numerous other occassions. JC is pinning his entire legacy so far on 3 fights - Eubank (fought only twice more at CRUISERWEIGHT before retiring), Lacy (last 2 performance were dreadful, although he was injured against Tsypko) and Kessler (by far the best fighter on his resume). JC desperately needs both Lacy and Kessler to come back strong and dominate or his wins over them will not look quite so good. After seeing Calzaghe's last 4 fights, I am very impressed with his skills, but not so impressed with his lack of courage for not facing better competition when he was younger. People speak of him as some ATG and I think he believes it himself. If he can convince the educated boxing fan of this, he should retire immediately and go into politics.

 

Who said he made big cash?

He only made £150,000 for the Calzaghe fight.

He's only fought 23 times or so, your talking as if he's fought 54 times and at the end of his career.

He should definitely fight on, hopefully his performance vs Manfredo was down to ring rust.

 

Sort his physical and mental state, have some nice tune ups 3 or 4 even and look for some nice little earners.

 

i see this post a 1000 times in 1 form or another.

i agree with it to some extent fighters like catley/ottke/beyer/lucas/echols/
should have been opponents , but there was only 1 big name capable of fighting at 168 from 1997 to 2004
hopkins.
dlh/trinidad/wright are not, were not, and never will be anything at 168 , they were simply to small .

 

Funny how Eubank is **** in some folks eyes, aint it. I remember him being a top 5 160-168 fighter for quite a few years. See what happens if you dont come from the Bronx.