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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.
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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.
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