By Rick Reeno

Showtime presented a great televised event tonight featuring two of the more exciting fighters in the sport. The live crowd from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was very hot and vocal for tonight's fights, always good to see a hot boxing crowd. The fans had no reason to complain after watching this show as both of the televised bouts gave them plenty of bang for their hard earned buck.

In the opener, undefeated Super Middleweight champion Jeff "Left Hook" Lacy took on  Rubin Williams. Both fighters made weight for the fight at 167 pounds and both weighed 176 pounds when weighed prior to the fight in the dressing room. Williams had the obvious advantage in height as he is over 6'1 and Lacy is 5'9. The two men faced eachother three times in the amateurs, Lacy won two of the three meetings. Former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright led Jeff Lacy to the ring.

The first round saw Williams pump a very good jab from a distance, but Lacy had no problems getting inside. Williams landed a few good shots, but never more then one at a time. Lacy would land some damaging shots when he would get Williams on the inside or against the ropes.

In the second, Williams was caught against the ropes and Lacy unleashed an assault of bombs for at least 30 seconds. Williams tried fighting back, landing some good shots, but Lacy would walk right through them and keep throwing more power shots. At the start of the third, Williams went right against the ropes and began an inside was with Lacy. Lacy was throwing more bombs on Williams as Williams would land an occasional good right hand counter.

The fourth round saw Williams start stong with landing some very good combos and some right hands that would rock the head of Lacy back. Lacy ended off the round by getting Williams against the ropes as both men started exchanging power shots on the inside. Round five was a copy of round four, Williams starting strong and Lacy taking it over when he got Williams against the ropes. Lacy unleashed some monster bodyshots on Williams, Williams ended the round with a great power right hand.

The sixth was more war between both men as Williams would get caught against the ropes and Lacy would keep him in place for an inside war. Williams landed some great right hand counters and uppercuts on Lacy on the inside. At the end of the round Lacy unleashed several combinations where Williams seemed hurt, but was able to get saved by the bell. The start of round seven saw Lacy drag Williams against the ropes and started unloading the kitchen with repeated power bombs to head of Williams. Williams was getting hit with too many power shots to head and the referee stopped the fight. Lacy getting a big seventh round TKO win.

Once the fight was over, Jeff Lacy begin calling out undefeated Joe Calzaghe and said that he is coming for Joe. The Showtime commentaters said that Lacy-Calzaghe may happen this December in Wales.

There were live feeds with Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton to discuss their upcoming June battle. Kostya was coming in live from Melbourne, Australia and Hatton was in Manchester, England. The one thing I noticed is that Ricky Hatton looked very overweight, his face was very "plump" and he had a double chin. The Showtime commentators even made reference to the obvious physical condition of Hatton with a few jokes on his weight.

The main event saw Jose Luis Castillo defend his lightweight title against former lightweight champion Julio "The Kid" Diaz.

Both men came out boxing in the first round, Castillo pushed Diaz back whenever he came foward. Diaz started switching to southpaw to get some shots in on Castillo. Castillo chased Diaz around the ring for various parts of round one. In round two, Castillo and Diaz traded power shots at points of the round. Both men traded hard hooks, but Castillo landed more of them and dug hard hooks to the body, the two men ended the round trading some big shots.

The third saw Castillo start to make more of a mark in the fight. Castillo was able to get in the inside and dig hard hooks to the body at will. The end of the round saw both men start going to war again and both men landed some good hard shots. There was an accident clash of heads in the fourth round, the ref Richard Steele gave Diaz a warning.Both men fought toe to toe at close range with Castillo getting the better of the exchanges.

Diaz started to get off a little better in the fifth round. Diaz landed some great combinations to the head and body of Castillo. A leaping right by Diaz caught the attention of Castillo, but Castillo landed a good right before the end of the round. The sixth was another good round for Diaz as he boxed well and landed some good shots on Castillo. A hook shook the legs of Castillo in the final minute and he also landed some good uppercuts.

In the seventh, Diaz started coming on strong with the straight right and left hooks when he had Castillo against the ropes. Diaz was able to keep Castillo at bay and land uppercuts on the inside. Diaz got cut above the right eye and it was in a bad spot on the eyelid.  The cut came from Castillo left hook. Castillo started coming back into the fight in the eight as Diaz began to have problems with the cut above his eye. Castillo began targeting the eye of Diaz and getting more active with his punch ratio. The left eye of Diaz was not doing much better as it was swelling shut. Castillo was warned for hitting after the bell by referee Richard Steele. 

Diaz looked in bad shape in the ninth from two hurt eyes as Castillo started punishing him with inside shots to the head and body, wearing Diaz down round by round. Castillo started landing more hard shots in the tenth and dropped Diaz with a left hook. Diaz beat the count and the two fighters began to go to war. Diaz got caught again and dropped for the second time. Diaz barely made it up this time, Richard Steele had seen enough and stopped the fight. It was a good stoppage as Diaz started taking a beating, his left eye was swollen shut and his right eye bleeding bad.

Showtime said that with this victory, Jose Luis Castillo will roll foward to face Diego Corrales in a title unification bout on May 7th, 2005.