By Dan Ambrose: After recently suffering his second one-sided loss in the past two years, there are whispering in the boxing community that super middleweight contender Jeff Lacy (24-2, 17 KOs) is a shot fighter, that he doesn’t have it anymore due to his vicious beat down at the hands of Joe Calzaghe two years ago. That may or may not be true, but what is true is that Lacy doesn’t seem to be the same fighter that went 21-0 with 17 knockouts at the time that he met up with Calzaghe in March 2006.
Perhaps it’s age, because, after all, 31 now, an age where some fighters began to lose their skills. It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising that Lacy has merely seen a drop off of his performance due to the years catching up to him, because 31 is an old age for boxers, especially fighters below the heavyweight level.
The problem here, though, is that Lacy seemed to lose a lot of his talent at the same time that he was defeated by Calzaghe. In that case, perhaps Lacy’s drop off in talent was due to an issue of confidence rather than an erosion in his physical skills.
Certainly, he didn’t look good as he entered the ring for his first fight following his defeat to Calzaghe, a fight against Vitali Tsypko in December 2006. However, Lacy looked as good as he ever did for all of one round, throwing enormous right hands and left hooks and looking to be on the way to an early knockout victory.
Little did anyone know that Lacy tore his left shoulder, the same shoulder that he uses to throw his powerful left hook. In other words, his main weapon in his arsenal. Not only did he injured his shoulder, he injured it badly, making it necessary to have surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff injury, one of the worst type of injuries and athlete can suffer.
Lacy, bad shoulder and all, went on to fight the remaining nine rounds of the fight, earning a close 10-round majority decision over Tsypko, but still getting the win none the less. The injury, however, once it was repaired and Lacy was able to continue fighting, left him with a much weaker shoulder than he previously had.
In fact, it seemed to rob him of his great power, while at the same time making him more of a one-armed fighter, almost solely dependent on his right hand to win his fights. To be sure, he was still able to throw his left hand, but it wasn’t nearly the same weapon that it was before hand.
Since that time, Lacy has learned to throw his right hand with almost as much power as he did his left hook, but it’s still not quite the same. Nowadays, Lacy no longer knocks out all his opponents, and instead has had to settle for winning three of his bouts, since his loss to Calzaghe, by decision.
So clearly his power isn’t what it once was, at least when it comes to his left side. However, those type of injuries take time to heal completely, sometimes up to two to three years before the full range of motion and power is brought back online.
In Lacy’s case, it’s been about two years exactly since his surgery, and based on his last fight in November against Jermain Taylor, Lacy is showing signs of getting his power back in his shoulder. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t come quick enough to prevent him from losing a lopsided decision to Taylor. However, Lacy still had his moments in the fight, hurting Taylor with some big shots and seemingly knocking him down on one occasion, but then having the knockdown waived off by the referee.
As for the belief that Lacy took too much punishment in his fight with Calzaghe, which in effect, has ruined Lacy as a fighter, I say that’s nonsense. Lacy was only slapped a lot in the fight, and didn’t take the big, jarring head shots – the type that cause brain injury. His face may have been cut up in the fight, but that’s mainly from eating a lot of repeated leather, but not from big, concussive blows.
Personally, I think Lacy is going to be alright in time. He just needs another five to seven months more to get his strength back, in addition to his confidence, and then he’ll be ready to take command of the division once again. However, he needs to stay busy and fight more often than he’s been doing because he needs to keep building on his skills.
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