Former International Boxing Federation Super middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (22-1, 17 Kos) returns to action on the undercard of Ricky Hatton vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. against Peter Manfredo Jr. (28-4, 13 Kos) on December 8th, at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. Lacy, 30, has been out of action since tearing his left rotator cuff in a bout with Vitali Tsypko on December 2, 2006. The injury to Lacy’s left shoulder involved a full thickness tear of the tendon, including a partial tear of the muscle as well. What made the injury even worse, however, is that it involves the side in which Lacy throws his left hook – his most dangerous weapon, in other words. Without his powerful left hook, Lacy becomes for all practical purposes and average fighter.
At the time the time of the injury, there was questions as to whether Lacy’s shoulder would ever heal sufficient enough for him to be as effective as he was earlier in his career. Apparently, the word is that the shoulder is as good as new. However, that remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure, Peter Mandredo will be a good test for Lacy to see how well it is healed, as Manfredo is a tough fighter, and if Lacy’s shoulder isn’t one hundred percent healed, he can very well lose the fight to Manfredo.
Lacy reportedly injured the shoulder in the 2nd round of his bout with Tsypko, and then miraculously continued fighting another eight rounds with throbbing pain. It wasn’t the smartest thing to do, since Lacy could have permanently damaged his shoulder in the process. In this case, Lacy didn’t know what had happened, thinking it was nothing more than a muscle pull, not enough to cause him to quit.
Manfredo, 26, was completely annihilated by Joe Calzaghe in a 3rd round TKO on April 2007, in an unsuccessful title challenge. Though Manfredo argues that he was ok, and just weathering the flurry that Calzaghe was unleashing on him in the bout. However, Manfredo was outgunned from the onset, and simply too slow, and unskilled to compete with Calzaghe. Since then, Manfredo has a couple of good wins over Ted Muller and David Banks.
With a win over Lacy, Manfredo could be faulted back into contention and perhaps get another shot at one of the super middleweight champions Joe Calzaghe or Lucian Bute. It will likely not be Calzaghe, who is nearing the end of his career and only wants to fight big name fighters and not up and comers. Manfredo, however, will have his hands full with Lacy, especially in the early rounds of the right when Lacy will, no doubt, be bringing intense firepower.