By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (24-1, 17 KOs) is retiring from boxing. In an article from the Tampa Tribune, Lacy, 31, said that he’ll be getting out of boxing and retiring altogether from the sport. If this turns out to be the case, it would wipe Lacy’s upcoming bout with Jermain Taylor which is slated for November 15th. It’s unclear whether Lacy is serious about his retirement comments or is just upset over his recent narrow defeat of journeyman Epifanio Mendoza on Wednesday night.

In that fight, Lacy, after a initially a good start in the fight, was hurt badly on two occasions in the 2nd and 8th rounds, staggering badly and ended up taking Mendoza down to the canvas in the 8th with a rough tackle. It was for Lacy his third poor performance since losing to Joe Calzaghe in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss in March 2006. At the time of the Calzaghe bout, Lacy was considered by many boxing fans and writers to be perhaps the best super middleweight in the world, with many of them feeling that Lacy would beat Calzaghe. However, as it turned out, Lacy was soundly beaten by Calzaghe, who swept every round and gave Lacy a tremendous beating during much of the way.

Lacy would then come back in his next fight against Vitali Tsypko later in 2006 and tear up his left rotator cuff in the fight while in the process of beating him by a 10-round majority decision. The injury to Lacy’s shoulder, a serious one, caused him to lose much of the once great power that he once had in his left hook after he recovered from the injury. Typically, an injury like this takes a long period of time to recover from, and in Lacy’s case he perhaps was still in the process of trying to regain his strength in his shoulder area even now, almost two years later.

If Lacy does stick to his decision to retire from boxing, he would be likely walking away from a lot of big money fights, starting with the Taylor fight coming up in November. He’s still only been beaten once and remains one of the most popular fighters in boxing despite his last three narrow decisions, and including his loss to Calzaghe. He still remains an incredible puncher even without his once powerful left hooking for him like it used to, which makes it odd to see him retiring from the sport at this early stage.