by David P. Greisman (photo by Scott Foster/FightWireImages)

They were two young stars, too good to be true. They were two chosen ones who went to the top too soon.

Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy had crossed paths before, teammates sharing a room when their futures were bright and the skies were the limit, when the 2000 Olympics were the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Eight years after, Taylor and Lacy shared a ring when their futures were in question and the sky was falling, when only one could win, rising again toward stardom, while the other would wind up star-crossed, crashing and burning.

Taylor took the victory, winning nearly every round on all three judges’ scorecards. Those tallies, 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110, gave “Bad Intentions” a clear decision, a new direction and a second chance. What those numbers represented meant that “Left Hook” as he once was had left the building, left behind in the second tier.

There were once whole years Taylor had gone without losing a round, back in the years before he’d ever even lost a fight. Those were the years when the junior middleweight bronze medalist became the middleweight heir apparent, the handpicked successor to Bernard Hopkins.

Taylor had size and speed, athleticism and ability. But his performances were reactive instead of instinctive, and the increasingly veteran, increasingly capable opposition may have come too early. In what should have still been his formative years, Taylor already wore a championship belt.

He had won twice over Hopkins via close, controversial decisions, nights when judges favored activity and pressure over frugality and precision. He fought Winky Wright to a draw, retaining his title against another of the top clinicians in his division.

He was also on the HBO superstar schedule of about two fights a year. Though his professional career was moving forward at a steady pace, the progression of his skills had stalled.

And then he was stopped.

Those heavy punches from Kelly Pavlik sent a tremble through Taylor’s body and delivered him into unconsciousness. Down once, Taylor went the distance in defeat in their rematch five months later. Those losses would alter a once untarnished career, a pair of heavy blows that would shake Taylor’s world and wake him up.

For Lacy, meanwhile, one loss was one too many.

There were once years when Lacy steamrolled over all opposition, back in the years when he was undefeated and undeterred. Those were the years when the middleweight Olympian became a super-middleweight titlist, when he held a belt after just 17 bouts and soon became one of the top challengers to Joe Calzaghe.

Lacy had strength and will, muscle and drive. But for all his confidence, he couldn’t conquer Calzaghe. In the span of 12 brutally humbling rounds, Lacy went from wrecking ball to punching bag.

Lacy would come back with three wins, but he who had once looked invulnerable now seemed unimpressive. He had battled through a serious shoulder injury, only to end up at war with his own sport.

He had just finished one fight, defeating Epifanio Mendoza, and was expected to announce his next one, a bout with Taylor, when, suddenly, he retired. The paycheck he was being offered was “an insult,” he told one newspaper reporter, fed up with what he called “a very dirty business.”

He was back less than a week later.

After that very brief time off, Lacy had apparently returned for money. Taylor, however, had come back after nine months away saying he had regained his love of boxing.

Box is what he did for 12 rounds, establishing distance and a rhythm with his 107 landed jabs, building momentum and a lead with his 106 landed power punches. His offense was balanced and effective, with 42 percent of his jabs and 57 percent of his power punches hitting their target.

Lacy would not move his head to avoid the shots, and, aside from a fifth-round knockdown that was ruled a slip, he was too slow, too plodding to catch Taylor. Though Lacy threw 443 punches, one more than Taylor, he hit him with just 75, a poor connect rate of 17 percent. Only 29 were jabs, the weapon Pavlik had used as a lead before the right hand followed.

“I knew Jeff was strong,” Taylor said afterward. “I knew all I had to do was just box him, just fight my fight when he come in. I knew he threw a lot of looping punches. So just let him throw it. I just did what I had to do to win. It was a comeback fight. I’m on the comeback.

“It’s all about getting your confidence back up,” he said. “The more fights you win, the more confidence you get. I feel like this fight was a confidence builder. Jeff is the hardest hitting guy I know. If I can take his punches, I know I still got it, even though I’ve been knocked out before. I was a little rusty in there, but I feel like I fought my fight.”

This bout was barely over before thought went to Taylor’s next one, the logical follow when a fighter wins. For the man who loses, though, there are no answers, merely questions. Those questions went unasked in the immediate aftermath as Lacy made his way toward the dressing room and the drawing board, whether it was the spotlight, the camera frame or the broadcast slot that was too small to fit an interview with him in.

Once, they were two for the future, two whose paths had crossed in the Olympics and who were on their way to stardom and success. Eight years after, their paths crossed again. Now, though, it is only Taylor who still has an upside and will continue forward. Lacy is on a downslide, his journey reaching an end.

The 10 Count

1.  Monte Barrett’s evening in London started with him trying to leap over the top rope, only to trip and crash to the canvas. His night ended with him having hit the mat five more times.

The person who put him there? David Haye, the former cruiserweight champion who began his heavyweight venture with a big fifth-round stoppage victory over Barrett, a two-time title challenger.

Haye dropped Barrett twice in the third and twice more in the fourth, landing faster, cleaner shots against an opponent who at times flailed wildly, hoping to see if Haye’s chin could hold up in boxing’s marquee division.

Barrett did have Haye on the floor in the fifth, catching him off balance and sending him to his seat. The referee ruled it a slip, however, and then gave Haye time to recuperate because Barrett had landed a big left hook while Haye was clearly down.

Haye got up and returned the favor with heavy shots of his own. The fifth knockdown would be the last, as the referee waved the fight off.

2.  “I said to you guys, ‘I’m explosive.’ I said, ‘I’m entertaining.’ I go out there and throw bombs from the start,” Haye said in a post-fight interview. “A lot of people think going up to heavyweight, I might have lost some of my power. But listen: I’m the hardest pound-for-pound puncher in the world in any weight division.”

Haye said all of this while standing to the left of Vitali Klitschko, sowing the seeds for a potential 2009 showdown.

“I don’t mind whether it’s Wladimir or Vitali,” Haye said. “They’re both brilliant in my eyes. They’re both the best in the world. It’ll be a huge fight. It’s the biggest fight in heavyweight boxing. So let’s make it happen.”

Wladimir Klitschko is scheduled to face Hasim Rahman on Dec. 13. Vitali Klitschko is slated to meet mandatory challenger Juan Carlos Gomez in his next appearance. Haye remains a likely foe, though, probably in the latter half of next year.

3.  Another heavyweight fight led to the best bad pun of last week. On the undercard of Taylor-Lacy, Chazz Witherspoon scored an eighth-round stoppage over the wonderfully nicknamed Adam “Swamp Donkey” Richards. Or, as Jose E. Santiago of FightNews.com put it, Witherspoon “often pinned the donkey with his right hand.” A tip of the cap from the author of many a groaner.

4.  A Stephen Colbert-ian wag of the finger, meanwhile, to the aforementioned Barrett, who came off as a diva when talking about Hayemaker Promotions to the South London Press prior to last week’s fight.

“They got me in a shitty hotel and fly me over here business class,” Barrett was quoted as saying. “And there’s little petty stuff like giving me £30 a day to live on a day. That’s not enough for a heavyweight. It costs me over £20 for a meal. This is not how you do business.”

Uh, Monte, you’re a mildly successful pro boxer. You’ve appeared on several HBO cards and even a few pay-per-views. Next time, forgo complaining about your per diem, buy your own food and fork over the cash yourself to find a better hotel.

5.  Dodgeball, an occasional update: Vernon Forrest had Ricardo Mayorga. Shane Mosley had Forrest and Winky Wright. Aim Low, it seems, has Corning, and a new season did nothing to change the fact that the night ended with employees from the optics company victorious over our ragtag bunch of newspaper staffers and friends.

Aim Low took the first game, but Corning won the next two to take the lead. Though Aim Low quickly tied it up, Corning wrapped up 30 minutes of dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging as the team on top, triumphing by a score of 4-2. So ends any thought of an undefeated season. Team record: 3-1. This past week’s post-game beer of choice: Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale.

6.  A boxer accused of using plaster of Paris to make his punches harder has been banned from the sport, according to reports in various South African newspapers.

The substance was allegedly found in gloves worn in late September by Edward Mpofu in his featherweight bout against Thanduxolo Dyani. Mpofu would lose a six-round decision to Dyani, and Dyani reportedly escaped with little injury beyond a swollen left eye.

Mpofu, 36, was once the South African 122-pound champion, a boxer who faced several names that might be familiar to global fight fans: Ali Funeka, Malcolm Klassen, Takalani Ndlovu and Somsak Sithchatchawal.

His fall from grace is now final – he retires involuntarily with a record of 17 wins, including three by way of knockout, 12 losses and four draws.

7.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Three British prospects with nine pro fights between them were arrested last week and charged with assaulting a 46-year-old man, according to an exceptionally brief report from the Daily Mirror.

The prospects are the Walsh brothers, 24-year-old Michael and 22-year-old twins Ryan and Liam. All are accused of “grievous bodily harm” and are due in court this week.

The three, who fight under promoter Frank Warren, debuted in February. They are all undefeated: Ryan has four wins, Michael, three, and Liam, two.

8.  The Walsh brothers have some big shoes to fill, both in pugilism and prison time, if they want to match the deeds of another set of felonious fighters: the Hiltons.

Davey Hilton Jr., a former super-middleweight titlist, was convicted in 2001 of sexually abusing two teenage girls – his daughters. He later violated his parole by assaulting and threatening his girlfriend.

Alex Hilton, who retired with a record of 37 wins and 11 losses, has a rap sheet that includes convictions on charges of robbing a convenience store, assaulting a police officer and attacking his former girlfriend.

Matthew Hilton, a former junior-middleweight titlist, had faced charges of armed robbery, assault and drunk driving.

9.  Strange but True: In other action last week, Nazih “Hammerhead” Kheir defeated Jamie “The Giant” Fallon in Australia to become, um, the “International Little Men Federation” titlist, according to the Canberra Times.

Kheir, a 23-year-old who the newspaper said stands about 4-foot-2 and weighs about 123.5 pounds, bested Jamie Fallon, who BoxRec.com lists as a 3-foot-6 minimumweight.

Their bout, which was the professional debut for both, was reportedly seen by a crowd of more than 1,500 people.

10.  All but inevitable: Kheir versus undefeated junior flyweight titlist Ivan Calderon. Why not? Yes, Kheir outweighs Calderon by some 15 pounds. But the 5-foot-tall Calderon, for once in his career, would have a 10-inch height advantage.
 
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com