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That was an excellent beating Joe put on him. There is no doubt about that. It was the kind of beating that that could seriously alter the mentality of a fighter, kill his confidence. Yet, I don't think that is really what ended Jeff Lacy. I think it was only one of three parts.
The second part is the shoulder injury in the very next fight. For all of Lacy's problems, and I'll get into those in a minute, he had the nick name left hook for a reason. He carried serious, fight changing power before that injury. No matter if he was getting outboxed or plain beat up, there was the equalizer that hasn't been seen since the shoulder injury. I mean has Lacy shown any serious power in his left hook since the second round of the Tsypko fight? He dropped Manfredo with a right but didn't have the diversity of punches to pile on and get a stoppage.
Part three is that Jeff Lacy was also simply part myth. There is a contingent, mostly Calzaghe supporters, who feel a need for revisionist history for their cause. Yes, there were avid, avid Jeff Lacy fans who felt he was a god in training. Yes, to them the Calzaghe performance was life altering. However, there was a strong voice that said "just look at this kid fight" that is ignored now. I was among a significant group of people who are seemingly forgotten by history who said that Jeff Lacy didn't fight controlled enough and was waiting to be embarrassed by a slick boxer or in a war when he finds the guy he can't hurt. He had little skill. Jeff Lacy is partly ruined because what some thought of him was never really real.
I'm not claiming to be Nostradamus with the last part, by the way. Boxing a fickle sport. If you're right just a little bit more than you're wrong then you're doing well. As much as a I doubted Lacy, I still picked him over Joe. You've got to keep in mind that Calzaghe then was basically Zsolt Erdei now. He hadn't been tested and a couple times struggled (Reid, Mitchell) against a couple lower level fighters. We didn't know he was great then.
Anyway, Taylor isn't Calzaghe, but Lacy isn't the Lacy that fought Calzaghe either. It is going to be a somewhat similar beating. I don't think he bothers taking it for 12 rounds though. I'm going with Lacy quitting on his stool late or a corner stoppage. My only concern is that Taylor won't try to finish him since they are such good friends.
The second part is the shoulder injury in the very next fight. For all of Lacy's problems, and I'll get into those in a minute, he had the nick name left hook for a reason. He carried serious, fight changing power before that injury. No matter if he was getting outboxed or plain beat up, there was the equalizer that hasn't been seen since the shoulder injury. I mean has Lacy shown any serious power in his left hook since the second round of the Tsypko fight? He dropped Manfredo with a right but didn't have the diversity of punches to pile on and get a stoppage.
Part three is that Jeff Lacy was also simply part myth. There is a contingent, mostly Calzaghe supporters, who feel a need for revisionist history for their cause. Yes, there were avid, avid Jeff Lacy fans who felt he was a god in training. Yes, to them the Calzaghe performance was life altering. However, there was a strong voice that said "just look at this kid fight" that is ignored now. I was among a significant group of people who are seemingly forgotten by history who said that Jeff Lacy didn't fight controlled enough and was waiting to be embarrassed by a slick boxer or in a war when he finds the guy he can't hurt. He had little skill. Jeff Lacy is partly ruined because what some thought of him was never really real.
I'm not claiming to be Nostradamus with the last part, by the way. Boxing a fickle sport. If you're right just a little bit more than you're wrong then you're doing well. As much as a I doubted Lacy, I still picked him over Joe. You've got to keep in mind that Calzaghe then was basically Zsolt Erdei now. He hadn't been tested and a couple times struggled (Reid, Mitchell) against a couple lower level fighters. We didn't know he was great then.
Anyway, Taylor isn't Calzaghe, but Lacy isn't the Lacy that fought Calzaghe either. It is going to be a somewhat similar beating. I don't think he bothers taking it for 12 rounds though. I'm going with Lacy quitting on his stool late or a corner stoppage. My only concern is that Taylor won't try to finish him since they are such good friends.
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