By Jake Donovan
Once upon a time, barely a few years ago, the thought of former Olympic teammates Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy squaring off against one another meant that there was nothing left to accomplish at middleweight or super middleweight.
Friends don’t square off for the hell of it, not at the top level; they do so when the dollars make sense, and all that’s left in their path to ring supremacy are each other.
Today, the two remain friends but already seem to be far removed from the glory they once enjoyed in their respective divisions. Just eight years after they pursued a common goal at the Summer Games in Sydney, both are in desperate need of a win to remain afloat in the super middleweight division, even with a recent thinning of the herd at the top.
Their main event tops a card filled with fights emblematic of the city that hosts the action (Saturday, HBO 10:15PM ET, Nashville, TN). The show, much like Nashville, is loaded with mostly out-of-towners - some in search of a new start, others in need of a fresh one, all believing that Music City will serve as the answer to their dreams.
Rare is the occasion when a pair of former world champions rounding just eight years as professional prizefighters are already a loss away from being dismissed as irrelevant.
Welcome to the worlds of Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy.
As far as most in the industry are concerned, Taylor still carries the greater upside of the two, although that could just as easily mean he stands far more to lose, should he lose.
It’s been well over a year since he’s last seen the win column, and even longer since fans have been taken aback by any given performance. His resume boasts decent enough names –Bernard Hopkins (W12 twice) and Winky Wright (D12) among others, both of whom were high on many pound-for-pound lists at the time they faced Taylor.
The problem was his ability to seal the deal. All three of the aforementioned bouts were met with their share of debate, though most were forgiving of the final verdict in the December 2005 rematch with Hopkins.
Public opinion was as evenly split as were the three judges in his June 2006 title defense against Wright, who hadn’t lost in over six years heading into the fight. Once again, Taylor was given a pass by several, but was still in need of a clear-cut, dominant victory.
Such was to be provided in defenses against Kassim Ouma and Cory Spinks, both of whom moved up in weight for what was expected to be Taylor-made title defenses. Neither fight came close to meeting that goal. Consecutive wins were posted, but in performances most would prefer to forget as his approval rating dropped with each fight.
Strangely enough, it was his title-LOSING effort to Kelly Pavlik that would once again rally the troops. It certainly didn’t help that the fight was an instant classic, named 2007’s Fight of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. The bout had everything you can ask for – two undefeated fighters vying for one the most prestigious prizes in the history of the sport; both fighters hitting the deck; shifts in momentum; and a highlight-reel ending.
The only thing it lacked, from Taylor’s perspective, was an ending that had him leaving the ring the same way he entered – undefeated and with middleweight title in tow. That honor was instead bestowed upon Pavlik, who once again bested Little Rock’s finest in their non-title rematch five months later in Las Vegas. The rematch lacked the knockdowns and sudden drama that came with the first fight, but still entertained in its own right.
But by night’s end, Taylor was a man without a country. Two fights removed from his middleweight reign, and no real division to call his own. The bout took place at a catch weight of 166 lb, with Taylor eventually vowing to never again fight at middleweight.
Nine months have passed since the Pavlik rematch, the last time he’s stepped foot in a boxing ring. Far away are the memories of his being brought through the ranks, most of which has come courtesy of HBO and its PPV arm, including his pro debut nearly eight years ago. Yet here he remains one fight away from re-entering the title mix, with this weekend’s bout serving as a super middleweight title eliminator.
Emphasis on eliminator if you ask most, especially when discussion turns to Jeff Lacy.
Once upon a time, Lacy was so feared that his pro debut was postponed two days due to his opponent pulling out the morning of the fight. The sight of a debuting, chiseled Lacy manning the scales was too much for Kevin Butts to take in. So much, that an offer to triple his purse still wasn’t enough to entice the young man to share ring space.
Lacy would eventually turn pro – two days later, to be exact – and go on to enjoy the same type of relationship with Showtime as Taylor enjoyed with rival network HBO. From pay-per-view undercards and Shobox dates to Showtime Championship Boxing headliners, Lacy was a fixture on America’s #1 Boxing Network.
The rise to, or at least near, the top was fast and furious. An eighth round stoppage of Syd Vanderpool in October 2004 on Showtime earned Lacy the honors of becoming the first member of his Olympic squad to capture a major title, beating out both Taylor (eight months) and light flyweight Brian Viloria (ten months).
Four defenses followed in a span of just 13 months. Biggest among them was his August 2005 homecoming, when he became the first fighter to stop former champion Robin Reid, dominating the iron-chinned Brit en route to a seventh round stoppage in front of more than 15,000 adoring hometown fans at the St. Pete Times Forum.
But it was another UK-based super middleweight that whetted his palette.
Prior to their March 2006 collision, Calzaghe was “just” another undefeated titlist from overseas. The numbers were impressive – a 40-0 record and more than eight years as a super middleweight titlist. But missing at the time was substance, as his reign was better known for the injuries he often suffered more so than against whom he actually defended.
Perhaps it was part of the motivation for Team Lacy’s aggressive push toward such a fight, one whose expressed willingness to travel abroad to make it happen was backed up the moment the fighters put ink to paper late in 2005.
It was widely believed going in, at least on this side of the pond, that Lacy would return from England not just with his title in tow, but also Calzaghe’s trinket and his scalp along with it.
Part of it had to do with the fact that it was Lacy who was doing the traveling, with the thought having never crossed Calzaghe’s mind, or his promoter at the time, Frank Warren. Then there was also the stateside media coverage Lacy enjoyed, as well as the explosive nature that came with most of his 21 fights to date.
In the end, it all became a painful lesson in “be careful what you wish for.” Lacy received the fight for which he and his handlers heavily campaigned. His career has never been the same.
The beating he took was massive, though it took for that fight to occur, in order for the accolades to finally match Joe’s skills. He’s since went on to cement his claim as the greatest super middleweight of all time, and still remains high among today’s very best fighters.
Not so much for Lacy, who continues to attend classes at the school of hard knocks. Three wins have followed, spray painted over a 32-month period, none of which have anyone claiming he’s all the way back or even close to it.
Removed from the fold is promoter Gary Shaw, who guided Jeff from a pup, as well as longtime trainer Dan Birmingham. Now fighting his fourth fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner and reunited with old trainer Roger Bloodworth, Lacy turns the page to what he insists is the next chapter of his career, but what odds makers view as the final act.
Not yet immediately clear is the road to be traveled for the evening’s winner, but much easier to forecast is the next stop for the loser – a trip to the bottom of the queue, and one more step removed from the glory with which his career was once synonymous.
Tons of aspiring artists and songwriters come to Music City every day, only for a small few to actually get discovered, and even fewer going on to get a whiff of the fame and fortune that’s dominated their lifelong dreams. The rest are left to fend for themselves, in many instances find other means of work in order to survive.
With the economy in its current grim condition and networks less willing to throw money into our once thriving sport, there’s no greater time for Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy to begin belting out their greatest hits.
Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.