By Jim Dower: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (25-3, 17 KO’s) will be making his first appearance in over a year on December 11th when he faces journeyman Dhafir Smith (23-19-7, 4 KO’s) in a 12 round bout for the vacant Universal Boxing Organization super middleweight title at the Jannus Landing, in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Lacy, 33, has lost two out of his last three fights and hasn’t looked good since before injuring his left rotator cuff in his fight with Vitaly Tsypko four years ago in December 2006. Lacy, who once had one of the best left hooks in all of boxing, can no longer throw his left hook with nearly the same power after having his shoulder operated on for the injury.

In his last fight, Lacy was thoroughly dominated by 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. and stopped in the 10t round in August 2009. Jones basically toyed with Lacy during the fight and gleefully nailed Lacy with left hooks repeatedly in the later rounds until it was finally stopped after the 10th. Lacy won a controversial 10 round decision over Otis Griffin in April 2009, and before that Lacy was easily beaten in a lopsided 12 round decision against Jermain Taylor in November 2008.

Lacy was considered one of the best fighters in the super middleweight division until meeting up with Joe Calzaghe in March 2006. Lacy clearly wasn’t ready for that kind of fighter, as he was beaten by an embarrassing 12 round decision by Calzaghe and was never remotely competitive with the Welsh fighter. Smith has faced a number of good fighters during his nine-year pro career, losing to Andre Ward, Curtis Stevens, Adonis Stevenson, Kingsley Ikeke and Dawid Kostecki. Lacy should be able to beat Smith unless Lacy is even more shot than many boxing fans think he is.