Showing only brief glimpses of his former power, super middleweight Jeff Lacy (23-1, 17 KOs) struggled badly in the process of defeating reality TV start Peter Manfredo Jr. (28-5, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision on Saturday night. It was the first fight for Lacy in a year, after having major shoulder surgery to repair a tear of his left rotator cuff which occurred in his last bout against Vitali Tsypko. If there was any question as to whether Lacy still possessed his awesome left hook it was answered early in the first few rounds, when Lacy rarely used his left hand at all, much less his left hook. The final judges’ scores were 95-94, 96-93 and 97-92, all for Lacy.
When he did throw his left hook, it had very little power, looking nothing like it once did a year ago. Whether Lacy will ever regain the power in his left hook is questionable, as rotator cuff injuries often cause permanent weakness in the side of the injury. In the first three rounds of the bout, Manfredo used his speed and combinations to easily out-box the plodding Lacy, who was fighting mainly one-handed using his right almost exclusively. In the fourth round, Lacy surprised Manfredo with a huge right hand, dropping him to the canvas.
Manfredo was able to survive the round without much problem, using his feet to stay away from the slow moving Lacy. In rounds five through ten, Manfredo fought timidly, rarely mixing it up with Lacy, as he seemed to be trying to avoid getting him with another big right hand from Lacy. Finally, in the 10th round, Manfredo briefly showed some courage, as he landed some wicket uppercuts and beating Lacy around the ring almost as easily as Joe Calzaghe had done. However, by that point, Manfredo was too hopelessly behind and needed a knockout to win the bout.