By Mark Workman

Before the jubilant eyes of a 15,000 plus hometown crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, IBF Super Middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (20-0, 16 KOs) persistently mauled Britain’s Robin Reid (38-5-1, 27 KOs) Saturday night, proving that this Tampa Bay banger is most surely left hook lethal.

After knocking former WBC Super Middleweight champ Robin “The Grim Reaper” Reid to the canvas 4 times, a first in his career, Reid’s corner wisely stopped the fight at the end of the 7th round. Despite Reid’s objections and contention in the post-fight interview that he could’ve continued, Jeff Lacy was clearly on his way to knocking Reid out and hurting him badly.

Although starting slowly in the first round, Lacy soon began to mount an intense onslaught, proving to all in attendance that he wasn’t going to succumb to the pressures of fighting in front of a hometown crowd for the first time. Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy walked into that ring with every intention of making a stern statement in front of his adoring hometown fans and succeeded in brilliant color.

Throughout the fight, Lacy applied a swarming and intense pressure to Reid with a fire reminiscent of early Mike Tyson, using a jackhammer jab to force his way inside, firing shotgun uppercuts, throwing crushing overhand rights and his namesake left hook, pounding Reid relentlessly until his corner had seen enough and mercifully stopped the fight.

Turning pro in 2001, Jeff Lacy is the first fighter from his 2000 Olympic team to win a world title, taking home the vacant IBF Super Middleweight belt with an 8th round TKO against Syd Vanderpool last October. Brought along smartly, carefully increasing the quality of his opposition with each fight, trainer Dan Birmingham from the St. Pete Boxing Club is skillfully molding Jeff Lacy into the middleweight destroyer he’s destined to become.

Raised in a poor St. Petersburg neighborhood by his father Hydra Lacy who competed in the 1968 Olympic Trials and fought 18 times as a pro, Lacy began his ascent to the middleweight throne at the early age of 9 when his father took him to the St. Pete Boxing Club as punishment for getting into too many fights in school. From that day forward, Jeff Lacy began a quest that many believe will result in eventual supremacy and domination from the middleweight division up to the light heavyweight division at 175 pounds.

Jeff Lacy has risen from nothing to become the most promising super middleweight in recent years; but can he give the same beating to WBO Super Middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe (39-0, 31 KOs) that he handed to Robin Reid? That highly anticipated unification showdown between the 2 undefeated champions is set for November, providing Calzaghe can get through his warm-up fight with an as yet unnamed opponent in Cardiff on September 10th. Defending his title for the past 8 years, including a controversial win against Robin Reid, Calzaghe is expected to win in September and meet Jeff Lacy on Calzaghe’s turf in Wales in November.

Building a 209-12 record in the amateurs; boxing to the 2nd round of the 2000 Olympics; and then turning pro in early 2001, Jeff Lacy became the IBF Super Middleweight champion in only 17 fights. Now having defended his title 3 times, Jeff must now face tougher opposition and unify the title to further increase his exposure and credibility as a bona fide world champion.

His confidence level now at an all-time high after defeating Reid, Lacy is confident he’ll hammer out the same results on the WBO champ, 32-year-old Joe Calzaghe. I don’t believe Calzaghe can endure the kind of pressure and power that Lacy is going to unleash upon him and will fall in an even more convincing manner than did Reid. Lacy proved he could effectively handle a southpaw when he stopped Syd Vanderpool, so Calzaghe’s southpaw style shouldn’t be a factor in preventing the same painful demise for him.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jeff Lacy will smash right through Joe Calzaghe in November, adding the WBO belt to his collection and then hopefully fight Markus Beyer, the WBC champ, and Mikkel Kessler, the WBA champ, unifying the super middleweight title, giving the world one champion in that division, the way it should be. But where does he go from there?

Although I hope Jeff Lacy will continue onward in unifying the super middleweight crown after he beats Joe Calzaghe in November, a victory I’m convinced he’ll obtain, a super-fight clearly exists in a battle against the winner of Hopkins/Taylor II. But considering the fact that Lacy came into the weigh-in for the Reid fight a pound overweight and had to quickly drop that pound to meet the super middleweight 168 pound limit, will Lacy maintain his full power after losing the necessary 8 pounds to come down in weight to fight Bernard Hopkins or Jermain Taylor for the undisputed middleweight title?

Providing the fights can even be made against the WBA and WBC super middleweight champs, it would take at least until the summer of 2006 before Lacy could unify the 4 super middleweight belts—even longer if he wastes time with meaningless defenses for easy paydays—which means a fight against the undisputed middleweight champ couldn’t possibly happen until late summer/early fall of 2006.

If Hopkins wins back his middleweight crown in the December rematch with Jermain Taylor, a task I think he’ll successfully accomplish, it’s doubtful he’ll still be fighting in another year. He’s almost certain to retire champion and not take a chance of putting himself back into the same position he’s now in, desperately trying to win back his title so he can retire with vindication.

But if Hopkins should fail in the December rematch, that leaves us with the intriguing idea of Jeff Lacy coming down in weight to fight his Olympic teammate Jermain Taylor for the undisputed middleweight crown some time in the latter part of next year after he hopefully unifies the super middleweight title, providing Taylor doesn’t lose the title to someone else in the meantime.

I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to even attempt to guess at who would win a fight between Lacy and Taylor that far down the line; but if pressed today I’d lean towards Lacy after what I saw in Taylor in the Hopkins fight and what I saw in Lacy in the Reid fight, realizing completely the immense difference in the quality of opposition between the legendary Bernard Hopkins and the durable Robin Reid.

I’ve always wished that Bernard Hopkins were a more exciting fighter but I’ve learned to appreciate the immense talent the man possesses; and I can certainly see the burgeoning talent in Jermain Taylor; although I won’t be completely convinced of his true standing until after the rematch with Hopkins in December. But I do believe a fight between Jeff Lacy and either Hopkins or Taylor would be a sure-fire shootout of Old West proportions.

Looking upward to the light heavyweight division, a place I’m sure is going to be more comfortable and suitable for the powerful Jeff Lacy, what true challenges will exist for him when he finally reaches that inevitable time and place in his career? Will Roy Jones, Jr. (49-3, 38 KOs) even still be fighting then? It’s doubtful. Will Antonio Tarver (23-3, 18 KOs) keep winning and still be a force to reckon with at that time?

Who will be the champs in the light heavyweight division when Jeff Lacy is ready to rule that roost? Certainly the 4 who ‘rule’ it now are far from setting the division on fire. Hopefully Jeff Lacy will bang through whoever will be holding onto those 4 belts and unify that title, bringing true legitimacy and world-wide exposure to the light heavyweight crown once again.

At only 28 years of age, the Tampa Bay banger Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy stands poised to rip through several weight divisions, carving his mark into the chins of everyone who stands before him, adding more leather to his quickly growing collection; but can he reign supreme for years like such fighters as the great Bernard Hopkins? I think he can.

Will this young gunslinger be able to live up to expectations and become the next big superstar in boxing, using his aggressive style and hammer-like punching power to get rid of all the unnecessary champions holding too many belts and forge them all into a unified title to call his own for years to come? If that lethal left hook and sledgehammer right hand he possesses have anything to do with it, his future success is assured.

You can email Mark Workman with any comments at boxingmarkva@aol.com .