**What was Lacy's demise.....**

his over confidence and his skill was his down fall hopefully he can regroup

 

THERE WAS NO DEMISE.

He is as good as people made him out to be.
Calzaghe is just THAT much better and BAAAAAD style for a slower, shorter, slugger like Lacy.

Calzaghe ain't no one's targer or punching bag, but LACY ain't bad, Calzaghe just happens to be good. \\
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Andrey

 

That fight was one of my worst boxing experiences ever. It would have been so much better for Jeff if he hadn't fought with so much heart. Idiot Birmingham should have done him a favor after 8 or 9 rounds, but he failed to protect his fighter.

I think it was a combination of the factors you cite. Lacy wasn't as good as many of us wanted to believe, Calzaghe was better, it was a terrible style matchup (Lacy possessing none of the attributes to give a Calzaghe problems), and neither Jeff nor anyone on his team saw it coming.

I wonder if it would have been so bad if Roach had trained Jeff for the fight. I'm confident he'd have at least developed some alternative strategies.

 

Lacy was simply proven to be not that good. Dawson and Winky were schooling him in training day in day out. Chad is friends with him and he even admitted to not being "that surprised" about Lacy getting badly outboxed. Credit Calzaghe for taking the fight, but Lacy's flaws were there and would have been exposed sooner or later by a competent boxer.

 

I think he was totally underprepared for what he was going up against. He might well have trained hard, but all we heard was how he was going to knock Calzaghe out easily and that really showed. He looked like a guy that genuinely believed he would steamroll his opponent and then just shattered when the magnitude of the challenge was realised.

I mean he couldn't do a single thing in there. Could barely throw a punch. That isn't normal. I think he got spooked out.

 

People think Lacy is done because of the Tsypko fight but what I keep point out(because the vast majority of people forget) is that he was probably on his way to stopping Tsypko before his shoulder went . He was rocking his head back with jobs and won the first 2 rounds easily.........and then the shoulder went and we all know what happened .

Calzaghe was on another level to him but then again he may be on another level to all the guys at 168/175 , we'll see after the Kessler fight and the possible Hopkins v Calzaghe fight that could happen should Calzaghe win .

 

I think it was his overconfidence, and a lot of that confidence was put into his power. He's fought better fights than the one he fought against Joe, but it looked like he built up his body a lot in training as though he was building up his punch, but in the end it just made him stiffer and slower.

When it came to fight time, he loaded up shots too much and was frustrated by Calzaghe early, it prevented him from getting relaxed and trying to not to telegraph punches and throw some decent combos. This lead to Joe taking whatever self-confidence Jeff had over the course of the fight, Lacy was never a great technical boxer and didn't have much of a 'plan b' since his power wasn't carrying him over the line (or atleast he probably felt that way, he was chasing a big punch the whole fight).

 

Jeff was to green and fat to outgunned. Not to mention he had never fought in front of a crowd that large, noisy, and awesome. theres no demise for Jeff Lacy, he can still make a lot of noise in boxing and it will be interesting to see how he recovers from surgery. The man is all heart and I have a **** load of respect for Jeff.

 

He was tailor made for Joe and didn't have an answer to him. Against Tsypko, he caught a bad break. He's a good fighter and I hope he recovers.

 

Let me just add to that last line: "and neither did all the Lacy nuthuggers and the Calzaghe haters."

Which is what made it one of my BEST boxing experiences ever. I never appreciated how good JC was until that abject humiliation he put on Lacy, the 'SMW Tyson.' The Lacy fans were talking so much it was unbelievable. And all it did was **** JC off, which he used to fuel his 'masterclass.'

It was a joy to come to ESB the day after that fight and read the approximately 20 new and distinct articles and comments about the fight. There was no hedging, no 'wiggle room,' no controversies, etc. The Lacy fans either had to 'man-up' or be laughed out of existence. Many did, some still tried to claim Lacy was 'considered nobody' or some such garbage before the fight.

The fight should have been stopped, and I remember how Team Lacy was spinning their decision to let it continue, with things like 'Lacy showed he's a warrior.' Great, so did both David Reid and Vargas against Trinidad. They also were never the same again after their fights with Tito.

Lacy looks to have been similarly 'ruined' against JC. I guess time will tell.

 

You may be right about being "damaged goods" and while southpaws do trouble, but I thought he tore his rotator cuff in the Tsypko fight. In the first few rounds, he was on top of his game and landing hard, crisp straight right hands.

 

I've always thought Birmingham is an *******, but that fight made me despise him.

Consider Clinton Woods. He starts getting picked apart by Roy Jones, and before it gets any worse his people step into the ring. Sure enough, they build him back up and he's been going strong ever since.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid Jeff is damaged goods. His last fight proved that his chin has been softened up, and you have to wonder about his confidence. Now that he's undergone major shoulder surgery, it's tough imagining him ever getting another belt. I hope I'm wrong and am still a fan, though.