Jeff Lacy Makes a Questionable Comeback

By Michael Byrne - 12/02/2013 - Comments

By Michael Byrne: This weekend saw Jeff Lacy back in the ring for the first time since being embarrassed by Dhafir Smith in 2010. His fight was against Martin Verdin (20-16-2), so it’s clear he plans on taking the comeback slowly, which is advisable: he didn’t look too good.

Although the fight was stopped in Lacy’s favour in the third, Verdin was easily out-boxing Lacy off the back foot for large periods of the fight. Verdin’s first problem was his inability to hurt Lacy, as his combinations would land flush on Lacy’s head, but Lacy was able to keep walking forwards and trap Verdin on the ropes.

It follows that Verdin’s second problem was an inability to get off the ropes, and the fight was stopped after Lacy sent some particularly vicious, if a little wild, shots into the skull of a trapped Verdin. The stoppage was arguably a little premature, but it’s not worth arguing about because Lacy had started to get on top with his power and ability to walk through Verdin. However, during those three rounds Lacy did land a fair amount of flush punches on Verdin’s jaw, and Verdin never seemed to get troubled too badly, with the obvious exception of when the fight was stopped. Although Verdin seems fairly durable, he’s been stopped before and he’s been stopped earlier by relative nobodies. It is worth questioning whether Lacy still has the power he once flaunted.

Lacy did, at the very least, look muscular and toned as ever, except he was at the light-heavyweight limit for this fight. He commented that he does plan to get down to 168 as his comeback gains momentum. He also explained that he plans on winning himself a world title once more by fighting a few more bums then moving onto a ‘top 20 contender’. Well, top 20 contenders at 168 indicate names such as Manfredo Jr. (who Lacy defeated in 2007), Badou Jack, Brian Magee, or Marco Antonio Periban.

There would have been obvious cobwebs for Lacy last night, it seems that any fighter of that calibre, Manfredo included, would outbox him to an easy one-way decision at this point in time, unless they were to leave their chins hanging in the air.

Thus I don’t see Lacy’s comeback lasting very long. If we’re being brutal, Lacy was never truly an elite level boxer. He won a vacant IBF belt, and defended against a few little-known names, with the exception of (a past-best) Robin Reid, and was then either exposed or ruined by Joe Calzaghe. I hope Lacy is able to earn a decent wage in his comeback, but it seems clear that his title-hopes are delusional.



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