so why exactly were people picking lacy to beat calzaghe???

The highlight reel knockdowns. The big muscular frame. The (supposed) weak division he was (supposedly) walking through. Out of the ring he was a nice guy. He was on Showtime in the States. He was young. It was an American thing.

 

Undefeated, roids, gym rat, Tyson-esque, Yank, overrated European bum

It was a no brainer on paper

 

Yes. That and all the comparisions to Tyson, etc. I liked watching his earlier fights & I still like watching him fight even without that aura of invinsibility.

 

Because he's the only top American supermiddle who is exciting and can compete at the top of the 168 division. The division is mostly dominated by Euro's.

 

Because Calzaghe was underrated back then because fans and analysts generally suck at analysing and critiquing a fighters skill and ability correctly. They felt Calzaghe fought nobody, which simply was not the case and Calzaghe had been having chronic hand problems up until that point.

Lacy on the other hand was heavily marketable and entertaining and brought the KO's.

Do the math.

Back before that fight happened I made a thread on here saying that Calzaghe was going to wipe him out on the inside, everyone laughed and made comments like 'that fraud even got KD'd by Mitchell, Lacy's gonna starch him'.

Oh well.

 

For starters people in the states had seen very little of calzage. he had a reputation for being a scared little ***** that was scared to take on tough fights and on paper looked like another euro bum with a padded record.

Secondly those of us that had seen lacy had seen him steamroll through everyone. It was obvious that Joe was a more rounded fighter but the concensus was that Jeff would be too physical for him and that Joe would not be able to hang in there with him and withstand his power. Little did we know that lacy's power would not be a factor as he would only land about 2 shots throughout the entire 12 rounds.

For those of you that say it was just an american thing I would like to point out that even in the UK Lacy was the favorite.

 

because 90 percent of the people on this site have NEVER seen Joe fight and if they have it was ONCE:deal

 

Never seen a such a beating.

Insane how his corner didn't pull Lacy out

 

Simply because Calzaghe had not fight anyone very good at that point of his career...

 

A prime Reid would beat Lacy's ass no problem

Anybody that read anything into that was a major spastic

 

Calzaghe also looked poor in a few fights before the Lacy fight (Ashira & Salem) so people in the UK thought Joe was on the slide.

 

Overhyped HBO CHAMP.
IF he was from Denmark,he'd be Euro champ now and the US would assume he was ****/and or not give a rats arse about him.
Not an anti Lacey or US thing,just a simple fact.