04.03.06 – By Tim Neilson: WBO middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe had an easy time befuddling and ultimately winning an easy 12 round unanimous decision over the much hyped power punching challenger Jeff Lacy at the MEN arena in Manchester, England on Saturday night. The fight was never close from the start, as Calzaghe came out giving a virtual boxing clinic, making the hard punching Lacy miss again and again, while getting tagged by Calzaghe’s piercing jabs and lightening-like right hands..
From the start, the speed difference was amazing, as Lacy seemed to be throwing in slow motion compared to Calzaghe’s blinding speed, as he tagged Lacy again and again in the first round. In the 2nd round, Calzaghe circled, using excellent ring movement to confuse the plodding Lacy, while pumping out a steady course of jabs that snapped Lacy’s head back.
Lacy was cut under his eye in the 4th round and appeared to be looking scared for the first time in his career, as he was being stalked by the cool and calm Calzaghe, who looked like a marksman, chasing a wounded animal into the brush.
By the ninth round, Lacy looked like he had been in a train wreck, as his face bleeding profusely from the severe punishment he had sustained from Calzaghe’s fists. Try as Lacy might to land the one big shot that could get him back into the fight, he came up empty every time, wildly missing huge shots, while Calzaghe leaned back to dodge them.
In the 12th round, Lacy completely desperate by this point, went for the knockout, hoping to land one magic punch. However, it was Calzaghe who landed a huge bomb to Lacy’s head, sending him down to the canvas. Lacy was able to make it up, yet he was met with a storm of punches by Calazghe, who attempted to put an exclamation point on his dominating fight. Somehow, Lacy was able to make it to the end of the round and survive the 12 round beating, although I’m not sure his career will after this embarrassing shellacking by Calzaghe. The final judge’s scores were 119-105, 119-107, 119-107.