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"I get goose bumps just thinking we have a date on Saturday night," Jeff Lacy sighs in delight as if anticipating a steamy rendezvous with his "seriously beautiful" Italian girlfriend at home in sunny St Petersburg, Florida, rather than a brutal encounter loaded with menace and danger at 2am in downtown Manchester. Apart from facing a fighter, Joe Calzaghe, who has won all 40 of his professional contests, including 31 by knockout, Lacy will walk to the ring at the dead of night with the venomous roar of 20,000 Welshmen who will have invaded Manchester and will be baying for him to be hurt.
"I know that," the heavily muscled but quietly engaging 28-year-old American admits. "I was in Manchester last year when Ricky Hatton fought Kostya Tszyu and, man, that crowd is something else. They really get behind their fighter but I love that wild atmosphere.
"The booing actually excites me. Because when I hear the booing, and I know they gonna boo me bad, I'll remember those same fans ain't gonna climb into the ring with Joe. He knows that too. All fighters understand the truth about boxing. You're on your own between those ropes. It's you against him and no one, no matter how loud they might scream, can help you."
Like so many great fighters before him, Lacy manages to evoke both the sombre gravity and the almost mindless thrill of boxing in its purist form. He is also instantly likeable, whether slipping through some dodgy rhyming couplets - "I'm comin' to shine," he promises, "to take what's mine" - or when describing the risk he and Calzaghe will confront.
"That's the goosebump reason - the reality that here you got two guys with an unbeaten record of 61 fights between us. Calzaghe's been in the ring more times than me but he knows I've knocked out 17 of the 21 guys I've fought. That's why, in a way, I do admire Calzaghe for taking this fight. He knows it's going to be serious and very dangerous because I wouldn't look for this one to go the distance - what with our styles of being come-forward guys with real punching power. And how often do you get the two best fighters in the division meeting to unify their titles? My promoter Gary Shaw says that this is the biggest super-middleweight clash since Roy Jones Jr fought James Toney in Vegas [in 1994]. That tells you why boxing needs this fight so bad."
Jones and Toney were acknowledged as outstanding fighters. In contrast, the most intriguing aspect of this weekend's showdown centres around the uncertainty enveloping both men. It is a symptom of the enduring malaise afflicting contemporary boxing that it is still hard to gauge the real quality of Calzaghe, the WBO super-middleweight champion, and Lacy, his counterpart with the IBF belt.
The 33-year-old Welshman has beaten some decent fighters in his long career as champion - but neither an ageing, weight-drained Chris Eubank nor the hard-hitting but fragile Byron Mitchell are in the league of a prime Toney or a prime Jones. Similarly, Lacy's rise has been built on victories over journeymen like Scott Pemberton and Syd Vanderpool who mean nothing outside hardcore boxing circles. Even their two common opponents - Robin Reid and Omar Sheika - are hardly marquee names. And yet Calzaghe almost lost to Reid and Sheika clearly hurt Lacy.
"Yeah, Sheika shook me up early. But I came back to win a unanimous decision [in December 2004]. I know Calzaghe beat him on a [fifth-round] TKO [in August 2000] but styles make fights. I think it's just as important that Calzaghe had all kinds of trouble with Reid [February 1999] but I came along last year and knocked him out in the eighth round."
Marvin Hagler, meanwhile, has suggested that Calzaghe is a slight favourite. "I heard that," Lacy sniffs, "but everyone's entitled to their opinion. I was always a great fan of Marvin Hagler and nothing can change that."
The great middleweight icon also argued that Calzaghe may be in the top six pound-for-pound fighters in the world. "He could be," Lacy sighs, "but I doubt it. As long as he's been in this game Calzaghe has been calling out fighters and then ducking them. I don't consider that makes him part of any pound-for-pound top 10. He's had 17 title defences and not beaten one great fighter. I think that's why he knows he has to have this one career-defining fight against me. He doesn't have the dogged determination I have, I was born with this freakish determination to be number one. I still have the record for doing pull-ups in my elementary school, everything I did I wanted to be the best and nothing I did I wanted more than this (beating Calzaghe). Calzaghe has never fought in America, that's disgraceful when you got a guy moaning that he don't get no respect. He don't want to be the best as badly as I do."
Lacy is unequivocal about Calzaghe's main attribute. "He's got real hand speed. That makes him dangerous but his weaknesses will be exposed when he faces me, a very determined fighter who will make him fight. He ain't fought a guy who hits anywhere near as hard as me and that will shock him. He got put down by Byron Mitchell but I hit harder than that because I bring a totally different skill level.
"At the 2000 Olympics, when I got the bronze, they tested my power with a machine that measures the impact of a punch by pounds per square inch. They said afterwards I had the highest ever score on that machine - more even than heavyweights. It was frightening. They said it was bone-breaking pressure, as devastating to the guy getting hit as a high-speed car smash. Calzaghe will collapse under that power."
Eleven years ago, on 25 February 1995, another pulverising super-middleweight puncher from America, Gerald McClellan, fought Nigel Benn in London. Promoted by Frank Warren - who is again staging Saturday's Judgment Day that is heavily hyped in the US - and also shown on Showtime in the US, the Benn-McClellan bout was called Sudden Impact. It produced the most raw, terrible and tragic outcome - with McClellan still blind and brain-damaged all these years later. That fight was screened on ITV and effectively ended boxing's chance of continued exposure on terrestrial television for the next decade. ITV, this time, will show the Manchester contest live at 2am, in order to cater for the demands of Showtime in the US. After the recent string of brawling heavyweight fights featuring Danny Williams, Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison, ITV will be hoping for a dramatic contest, without the grotesque consequences that plunged McClellan and his family into utter darkness.
"Yeah, that (Benn-McClellan) was at light-middleweight or middleweight I think, all I remember is Benn was this wild slugger with dreadlocks and McClellan got taken out on a stretcher, that was sad." recalls Lacy.
If some find it increasingly easy to ridicule boxers, the build-up to this weekend's clash should serve as a salutary reminder of both the extreme danger and sustained courage on display. "The ring can be a real lonely place," Lacy says. "I've been fighting 20 years, ever since my dad took me into the gym at the age of eight because I'd been fighting kids at elementary school. The first guy I fought in the gym gave me a real whipping. So I decided there and then to become a proper fighter."
Ofcourse, this Judgement Day is not near as hyped in the UK as the original Judgement Day that came thirteen years ago in front of 40,000 at Old Trafford in Manchester when Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn squared off for their long-awaited rematch (also shown on Showtime in the US). But that has more to do with Calzaghe's lack of interest in making himself known to the general public and focussing on his boxing instead, Eubank and Benn by contrast were celebrities in their own right. It also has a lot to do with the fact that Calzaghe's fights haven't been screened on terrestrial television, where Eubank and Benn ofcourse made their names on ITV at prime time on a Saturday night.
Lacy's sober insights into the perils of boxing are obvious when he reflects on the fighter he reveres most. "Evander Holyfield has always been the guy I looked up to in this game. When he fought Mike Tyson twice all those other homeboys were on the Tyson bandwagon. But I was totally with Holyfield because of his determination and dignity. He could face down the worst danger and beat anyone because he had such belief. That's a real inspiration to me."
And yet Holyfield, an increasingly slurred and broken fighter, simply will not quit, even when one bleak pummelling follows another. "I feel the same way you do. I want Evander to give up but it's hard for him to think of himself as a normal guy again. His whole identity is caught up in the fact that he was once a great boxer. He just can't let it go and, yeah, that's worrying."
Lacy pauses when asked if Holyfield's fate makes him love boxing less. "In the end you need to understand it's not boxing's fault. It's down to the individual fighter and having the right people around to convince him it's time to quit. Too many fighters get caught up in making money and being recognised as a champion. I'm luckier; I have good people around me who will ease me out when the time comes."
"I know that," the heavily muscled but quietly engaging 28-year-old American admits. "I was in Manchester last year when Ricky Hatton fought Kostya Tszyu and, man, that crowd is something else. They really get behind their fighter but I love that wild atmosphere.
"The booing actually excites me. Because when I hear the booing, and I know they gonna boo me bad, I'll remember those same fans ain't gonna climb into the ring with Joe. He knows that too. All fighters understand the truth about boxing. You're on your own between those ropes. It's you against him and no one, no matter how loud they might scream, can help you."
Like so many great fighters before him, Lacy manages to evoke both the sombre gravity and the almost mindless thrill of boxing in its purist form. He is also instantly likeable, whether slipping through some dodgy rhyming couplets - "I'm comin' to shine," he promises, "to take what's mine" - or when describing the risk he and Calzaghe will confront.
"That's the goosebump reason - the reality that here you got two guys with an unbeaten record of 61 fights between us. Calzaghe's been in the ring more times than me but he knows I've knocked out 17 of the 21 guys I've fought. That's why, in a way, I do admire Calzaghe for taking this fight. He knows it's going to be serious and very dangerous because I wouldn't look for this one to go the distance - what with our styles of being come-forward guys with real punching power. And how often do you get the two best fighters in the division meeting to unify their titles? My promoter Gary Shaw says that this is the biggest super-middleweight clash since Roy Jones Jr fought James Toney in Vegas [in 1994]. That tells you why boxing needs this fight so bad."
Jones and Toney were acknowledged as outstanding fighters. In contrast, the most intriguing aspect of this weekend's showdown centres around the uncertainty enveloping both men. It is a symptom of the enduring malaise afflicting contemporary boxing that it is still hard to gauge the real quality of Calzaghe, the WBO super-middleweight champion, and Lacy, his counterpart with the IBF belt.
The 33-year-old Welshman has beaten some decent fighters in his long career as champion - but neither an ageing, weight-drained Chris Eubank nor the hard-hitting but fragile Byron Mitchell are in the league of a prime Toney or a prime Jones. Similarly, Lacy's rise has been built on victories over journeymen like Scott Pemberton and Syd Vanderpool who mean nothing outside hardcore boxing circles. Even their two common opponents - Robin Reid and Omar Sheika - are hardly marquee names. And yet Calzaghe almost lost to Reid and Sheika clearly hurt Lacy.
"Yeah, Sheika shook me up early. But I came back to win a unanimous decision [in December 2004]. I know Calzaghe beat him on a [fifth-round] TKO [in August 2000] but styles make fights. I think it's just as important that Calzaghe had all kinds of trouble with Reid [February 1999] but I came along last year and knocked him out in the eighth round."
Marvin Hagler, meanwhile, has suggested that Calzaghe is a slight favourite. "I heard that," Lacy sniffs, "but everyone's entitled to their opinion. I was always a great fan of Marvin Hagler and nothing can change that."
The great middleweight icon also argued that Calzaghe may be in the top six pound-for-pound fighters in the world. "He could be," Lacy sighs, "but I doubt it. As long as he's been in this game Calzaghe has been calling out fighters and then ducking them. I don't consider that makes him part of any pound-for-pound top 10. He's had 17 title defences and not beaten one great fighter. I think that's why he knows he has to have this one career-defining fight against me. He doesn't have the dogged determination I have, I was born with this freakish determination to be number one. I still have the record for doing pull-ups in my elementary school, everything I did I wanted to be the best and nothing I did I wanted more than this (beating Calzaghe). Calzaghe has never fought in America, that's disgraceful when you got a guy moaning that he don't get no respect. He don't want to be the best as badly as I do."
Lacy is unequivocal about Calzaghe's main attribute. "He's got real hand speed. That makes him dangerous but his weaknesses will be exposed when he faces me, a very determined fighter who will make him fight. He ain't fought a guy who hits anywhere near as hard as me and that will shock him. He got put down by Byron Mitchell but I hit harder than that because I bring a totally different skill level.
"At the 2000 Olympics, when I got the bronze, they tested my power with a machine that measures the impact of a punch by pounds per square inch. They said afterwards I had the highest ever score on that machine - more even than heavyweights. It was frightening. They said it was bone-breaking pressure, as devastating to the guy getting hit as a high-speed car smash. Calzaghe will collapse under that power."
Eleven years ago, on 25 February 1995, another pulverising super-middleweight puncher from America, Gerald McClellan, fought Nigel Benn in London. Promoted by Frank Warren - who is again staging Saturday's Judgment Day that is heavily hyped in the US - and also shown on Showtime in the US, the Benn-McClellan bout was called Sudden Impact. It produced the most raw, terrible and tragic outcome - with McClellan still blind and brain-damaged all these years later. That fight was screened on ITV and effectively ended boxing's chance of continued exposure on terrestrial television for the next decade. ITV, this time, will show the Manchester contest live at 2am, in order to cater for the demands of Showtime in the US. After the recent string of brawling heavyweight fights featuring Danny Williams, Matt Skelton and Audley Harrison, ITV will be hoping for a dramatic contest, without the grotesque consequences that plunged McClellan and his family into utter darkness.
"Yeah, that (Benn-McClellan) was at light-middleweight or middleweight I think, all I remember is Benn was this wild slugger with dreadlocks and McClellan got taken out on a stretcher, that was sad." recalls Lacy.
If some find it increasingly easy to ridicule boxers, the build-up to this weekend's clash should serve as a salutary reminder of both the extreme danger and sustained courage on display. "The ring can be a real lonely place," Lacy says. "I've been fighting 20 years, ever since my dad took me into the gym at the age of eight because I'd been fighting kids at elementary school. The first guy I fought in the gym gave me a real whipping. So I decided there and then to become a proper fighter."
Ofcourse, this Judgement Day is not near as hyped in the UK as the original Judgement Day that came thirteen years ago in front of 40,000 at Old Trafford in Manchester when Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn squared off for their long-awaited rematch (also shown on Showtime in the US). But that has more to do with Calzaghe's lack of interest in making himself known to the general public and focussing on his boxing instead, Eubank and Benn by contrast were celebrities in their own right. It also has a lot to do with the fact that Calzaghe's fights haven't been screened on terrestrial television, where Eubank and Benn ofcourse made their names on ITV at prime time on a Saturday night.
Lacy's sober insights into the perils of boxing are obvious when he reflects on the fighter he reveres most. "Evander Holyfield has always been the guy I looked up to in this game. When he fought Mike Tyson twice all those other homeboys were on the Tyson bandwagon. But I was totally with Holyfield because of his determination and dignity. He could face down the worst danger and beat anyone because he had such belief. That's a real inspiration to me."
And yet Holyfield, an increasingly slurred and broken fighter, simply will not quit, even when one bleak pummelling follows another. "I feel the same way you do. I want Evander to give up but it's hard for him to think of himself as a normal guy again. His whole identity is caught up in the fact that he was once a great boxer. He just can't let it go and, yeah, that's worrying."
Lacy pauses when asked if Holyfield's fate makes him love boxing less. "In the end you need to understand it's not boxing's fault. It's down to the individual fighter and having the right people around to convince him it's time to quit. Too many fighters get caught up in making money and being recognised as a champion. I'm luckier; I have good people around me who will ease me out when the time comes."
MAYBE?
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