Boxing

Taylor, Lacy Meet in Fight That Could Have Been

New Year’s Day, 2005.

Jermain Taylor is fresh off of back-to-back wins over the legendary Bernard Hopkins, and is sitting pretty as the undisputed middleweight champion of the world.

Jeff Lacy is in training. He has a bout coming up in just three months with Joe Calzaghe to unify the super-middleweight belts. Lacy is a small favorite and predicted by most to be the man that beats the long-time champion.

Lacy was one fight away from being Taylor. Young, undefeated superstar, taking on the long-reigning champion in a matchup of old man versus the future. A Lacy win, as expected, would set up one of the biggest fights you could make in boxing — former teammates on the 2000 US Olympic team, both undefeated champions, putting their friendship aside in a boxing blockbuster…

Fast forward almost four years to November 15, 2008.

Taylor and Lacy will finally step into the ring together. Taylor is 27-2, coming off of back-to-back losses, never having really capitalized on his wins over Hopkins. Lacy is 24-1, with his only loss being to Calzaghe, but a terrible shoulder injury and the beating he took from Calzaghe have nearly ended his career.

Lacy is lucky to be 24-1. He could very easily be 21-4, as it took all he had to survive and eek out wins in his last three fights. Since the brutal beating he took at the hands of Calzaghe, Lacy has two wins via majority decision over B-level fighters, and a very narrow unanimous decision against the Contender’s Peter Manfredo. In his most recent fight against Epifanio Mendoza, Lacy was hurt on several occassions and truly “survived” the fight to get the nod on the scorecards.

Taylor put together an impressive resume in his time as middleweight champ, even if all of the wins weren’t as impressive as the names. Hopkins, Ouma, Spinks, and a draw with Winky Wright left many people saying that Taylor was an underachiever, and that with his talent, he should be more convincing in his wins.

His shot at redemption came against the undefeated rising star Kelly Pavlik. This was Taylor’s shot at the title, despite him already having the title. It appeared that Taylor was going to skyrocket back to the top, when he had Pavlik down and on queer street in the second round. Almost any referee in boxing would have stopped the fight with Taylor a KO winner, but Steve Smoger said to fight on, as he always does.

With a comfortable lead on the scorecards, Taylor got caught by Pavlik’s vicious right hand, stumbling back into the corner where he was knocked out.

A rematch with Pavlik was not nearly as entertaining, but it showed that Taylor can take a punch, and that he can make adjustments when needed. He lost the rematch on points, but it may have been Taylor’s most impressive fight since before he was the champ.

Now these former teammates and roommates finally meet. It’s not the blockbuster it could have been. It’s more of a crossroads fight. If Taylor wins, he is right in the mix for the biggest fights in the game at super-middleweight or light-heavyweight, while Lacy will have to go back to the drawing board and pretty much start from square one.

If Lacy wins, he re-establishes himself as a legitimate contender at the super-middleweight level. More importantly, if Lacy wins, Taylor is back to square one.

The bottom line is that the winner of this fight is in line for a much bigger fight, especially if it is Taylor. The loser of this fight may need to accept that their next fight will be on ESPN or Versus.

As for the actual fight, I think it is certainly Taylor’s fight to lose. As long as he jabs and lets his hands go to the tune of 40-50 punches per round, I think Taylor maintains control of the fight. If he stays cautious like he was with Pavlik’s right hand, Taylor should stay out of trouble.

Lacy needs to pace himself and look to land more than one big punch. He seems to be mentally broken since the Calzaghe fight, unable to let his hands go, and unsure of himself when he does. If Lacy wants to win this fight, he needs to have something left in the tank after the 6th round.

I think that Taylor systematically breaks Lacy down with a steady diet of jabs and right hands. I would expect Lacy to by gassed and looking out of one eye by the 7th round, and for Taylor to have a chance to take him out by the 8th or 9th round. I don’t think that the current version of Jeff Lacy is going to have a whole lot of say in this fight.

Prediction: Taylor TKO 9.

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