Former IBF super-middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy (25-3, 17 KOs) will end a 16 month ring absence on December 11 against Dhafir Smith (23-19-7, 4 KOs).
Lacy has been dormant since suffering a 10th round corner stoppage to Roy Jones, Jr. in August 2009. Jones dominated the contest, toying with Lacy from the beginning and winning every round by large margins.
Afterward, Lacy was sidelined again due to problems with his left shoulder. In 2006, a rotator cuff tear on that shoulder sidelined Lacy for a year.. Since then, he has fought five times, going 3-2.
Lacy’s comeback bout will be held in his St. Petersburg, FL hometown at Jannus Live. The card will be jointly promoted by Lacy’s Left Hook Promotions, and Fight Night Promotions. The 12 round bout will also be for the UBO (Universal Boxing Organization) International super-middleweight title.
The fight will be shown locally on cable TV by Bright House Networks. Jeff Lacy’s opponent is subject to change.
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Most elite level boxing careers are filled with extreme highs and lows. Jeff Lacy’s is no different. It was just four years ago when many were crowning him the next big American star, who’s coming out party would be an emphatic victory in a 168 pound unification bout with Joe Calzaghe.
We all know how that fight turned out. Emmanuel Steward call it the most lopsided result he’s ever seen in a superfight. I named it #1 on my list of the Top 10 Boxing Beatdowns of the 21st Century. It was a whitewash that Lacy’s corner should have pulled him out of around the ninth round.
Still, that loss by itself wasn’t what signaled the end of Lacy’s career as a top fighter. That happened in his very next fight against Vitaliy Tsypko. Lacy initially looked like his old self before tearing his rotator cuff early on. He amazingly finished the bout and won a close majority decision, despite essentially having one arm and being deprived of his money punch, the left hook.
When Lacy returned a year later following surgery and therapy, it was immediately apparent that the explosiveness of his left hook was gone. As a result, Lacy was now having life and death struggles with fighters he would have run through just a year before (Epifanio Mendoza, Otis Grant). And when he stepped in with a name opponents like Roy Jones and Jermain Taylor, Lacy was easily outclassed. The power had been the equalizer, and now it was gone, as evident in the fact Lacy has not scored a knockout since a 2005 second round stoppage of Scott Pemberton.
When he lost to Jones last year, many, including myself, said that was it for Lacy. The fact that a shot Roy Jones, who was KO’d in one round in his next fight, could dominate Lacy so easily was not promising news. In fact, that fight was a such a lopsided exhibition that it came at #6 on the Top Boxing Beatdowns of the 21st Century list.
That fight was at light-heavyweight, and now Lacy has returned back to 168 to make another, and presumably last, comeback at 33 years old. But the landscape is very different. The division has become the deepest division in boxing with the talent in the Super Six, and Lucian Bute. Even in Lacy’s prime, the aforementioned fighters would have been a handful and favored over him.
The odds are certainly stacked against him. But like any fighter, Lacy’s entitled to try to finish his career on his own terms.
December 11 will be the first glimpse of if Jeff Lacy has anything left to accomplish that goal.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 