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BBBC Demands Lacy to Shave Off his beard
CLOSE SHAVE FOR LACY
By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport
Jeff Lacy has been ordered to trim his beard ahead of his big world super-middleweight title unification bid against Joe Calzaghe in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
The American IBF champion has been in a bleak mood all week and it got worse when the British Boxing Board of Control last night deemed his facial hair too long.
Despite Lacy promoter Gary Shaw's protestations, Board chairman Charles Giles demanded the 28-year-old either lose the beard or trim it ahead of the showdown.
The Board insisted it was simply a well-known British Board rule but Shaw was not immediately in the mood for compromise, insisting: "Jeff is not taking his beard off".
It was the last thing unbeaten Lacy needed as he attempted to focus on becoming the first man to beat Welshman Calzaghe and establish himself as the dominant 12-stone fighter in the world.
Calzaghe has reigned as WBO champion for nine years but until Lacy came along he had become increasingly frustrated as attempts to line up other unification bouts came to nothing.
Finally he has enticed Lacy to Manchester's sold-out MEN Arena for a showdown which has attracted the attention of boxing fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
Calzaghe said: "I am a proud fighter and this is the match between the two top guys and the match that matters most.
"We've been waiting for this fight for eight years. This is the fight that fighters dream about. I can't wait because I've been waiting to unify the titles for so long."
Despite Lacy's assertions to the contrary, Calzaghe starts as a marginal underdog after a number of unimpressive recent displays while Lacy has blazed to 21 straight wins.
Recent injury problems also cause concern with a projected initial date having to be scrapped when Calzaghe broke his left hand in a low-key defence against Evans Ashira last year.
Lacy said: "My dream is to unify the two super-middleweight titles and I have never turned my back on a dream. I love being the underdog and that is why I came over here to take this fight."
The 33-year-old Calzaghe may have won all 40 of his own professional fights but he still feels he has a point to prove to some critics and will answer them by beating Lacy and looking further ahead.
"I've always said I want to be a two-weight world champion and it is still one of my goals," Calzaghe added. "It would be great to win a world title at light-heavyweight and it would make my career complete."
Calzaghe is fuelled by the memory of his last defeat as an amateur in the 1990 European Junior Championships to a long forgotten Romanian named Adrian Opreda.
And he vowed on that day never again to experience the despair of losing after finding himself on the wrong end of a close and controversial verdict.
Calzaghe said: "I cried every time I lost when I was an amateur. I hated it every time and I swore after I lost a close decision to Opreda that it would not happen again."
lets see what happens O:
By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport
Jeff Lacy has been ordered to trim his beard ahead of his big world super-middleweight title unification bid against Joe Calzaghe in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
The American IBF champion has been in a bleak mood all week and it got worse when the British Boxing Board of Control last night deemed his facial hair too long.
Despite Lacy promoter Gary Shaw's protestations, Board chairman Charles Giles demanded the 28-year-old either lose the beard or trim it ahead of the showdown.
The Board insisted it was simply a well-known British Board rule but Shaw was not immediately in the mood for compromise, insisting: "Jeff is not taking his beard off".
It was the last thing unbeaten Lacy needed as he attempted to focus on becoming the first man to beat Welshman Calzaghe and establish himself as the dominant 12-stone fighter in the world.
Calzaghe has reigned as WBO champion for nine years but until Lacy came along he had become increasingly frustrated as attempts to line up other unification bouts came to nothing.
Finally he has enticed Lacy to Manchester's sold-out MEN Arena for a showdown which has attracted the attention of boxing fans on both sides of the Atlantic.
Calzaghe said: "I am a proud fighter and this is the match between the two top guys and the match that matters most.
"We've been waiting for this fight for eight years. This is the fight that fighters dream about. I can't wait because I've been waiting to unify the titles for so long."
Despite Lacy's assertions to the contrary, Calzaghe starts as a marginal underdog after a number of unimpressive recent displays while Lacy has blazed to 21 straight wins.
Recent injury problems also cause concern with a projected initial date having to be scrapped when Calzaghe broke his left hand in a low-key defence against Evans Ashira last year.
Lacy said: "My dream is to unify the two super-middleweight titles and I have never turned my back on a dream. I love being the underdog and that is why I came over here to take this fight."
The 33-year-old Calzaghe may have won all 40 of his own professional fights but he still feels he has a point to prove to some critics and will answer them by beating Lacy and looking further ahead.
"I've always said I want to be a two-weight world champion and it is still one of my goals," Calzaghe added. "It would be great to win a world title at light-heavyweight and it would make my career complete."
Calzaghe is fuelled by the memory of his last defeat as an amateur in the 1990 European Junior Championships to a long forgotten Romanian named Adrian Opreda.
And he vowed on that day never again to experience the despair of losing after finding himself on the wrong end of a close and controversial verdict.
Calzaghe said: "I cried every time I lost when I was an amateur. I hated it every time and I swore after I lost a close decision to Opreda that it would not happen again."
lets see what happens O:
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