On December 11 at the Jannus Live in hometown St. Petersburg, Florida, former IBF and IBO World Super Middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy will return to the ring for the first time since his loss to all-time great Roy Jones Jr. last year.
Lacy, 25-3, 17 KOs, will take on an opponent to be confirmed for the vacant Universal Boxing Organization™ International Super Middle weight title, on a co-promotion between Fight Night Promotions and Left Hook Promotions.
Following the Jones fight Lacy went through therapy to fix his left shoulder, and he is now again able to perform at world class level.
The Jannus Live, formerly known as Jannus Landings, is a famous outdoor concert venue which will be transformed into a boxing arena to accommodate St. Petersburg’s local boxing hero when he makes his homecoming on December 11. This will be the first time as a professional that Lacy fights in St. Petersburg, and the twelve-round bout will be televised by Bright House Networks cable TV.
A 2000 US Olympian with an amateur record of 209-12, Jeff Lacy turned professional the following year with a first round knockout over Jerald Lowe in Columbus, Ohio. While that fight was covered by ESPN, Lacy would quickly turn into a steady Showtime TV attraction due to his massive punching power and entertaining fighting style.
After eleven straight victories, ten by way of knockout, Lacy won his first professional title in 2002 when he beat former world title challenger Ross Thompson on points for the WBC Continental Americas championship. He soon added USBA and NABA belts to his collection, before winning the IBF World title in 2004 with an eight-round stoppage over Canadian Syd Vanderpool.
Lacy racked up two defenses of his IBF World title, beating Omar Sheika and Rubin Williams, before clashing with IBO champion Robin Reid in a unification bout. Scoring four knockdowns along the way, Lacy dominated Reid thoroughly and made the Englishman’s corner retire their fighter after the seventh round.
However, in his biggest fight to date, Lacy was convincingly beaten in another unification fight when future Hall of Famer, and perhaps the best super middleweight of all time, WBO champion Joe Calzaghe won a unanimous decisionin 2006 at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England. Lacy came back with three victories over Vitaly Tsypko, Peter Manfredo and Epifanio Mendoza before losing a decision to Olympic teammate, and former WBC/WBO World champion, Jermain Taylor in late 2008.
Following the Taylor fight, Lacy moved up to Light Heavyweight to beat Otis Griffin at the Sun Dome in Tampa in April of 2009. That victory paved the way for the Roy Jones fight, but after losing to the former Middleweight, Super Middleweight, Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion, Lacy has now decided to move down to 168 Lbs. again to chase another World title.
The quest begins on December 11 with a fight for the UBO International title, and whoever is eventually confirmed to be in the opposite corner on the night will be in for a rough ride as a determined “Left Hook” sets his sight at the top of the Super Middleweight division again.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
