05.03.06 – By Joseph Carlo Russo: During the week counting down to the super middleweight showdown between Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe all the way up to point when Jeff Lacy appeared for the ring walk, I was never quite sure who would take the fight and how. Part of me thought Lacy would pull out a knockout, while part of me though Calzaghe would pull out a boxout, and vice versa. But as soon as Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy appeared to make his ring walk, something was telling me that Lacy was going to lose brutally and severely. It wasn’t the look in his eyes, or the language of his body. It was his trunks.
Boxing has proven time and time again that a fighter wearing red, white, and blue trunks to the ring the night of a fight is unbeknownstly indicating that he will endure a heavy beating as history continues to repeat itself time and time again. And the instant that I saw what I suspected Jeff Lacy would be sporting as his trunks in a foreign nation, I got a gut feeling for how the fight was going to unravel.
In recent memory, many fighters wearing red, white and blue trunks have lost decisive, career defining bouts, all in brutal fashion. Hasim Rahman, who did not sport his native colors in his first bout with Lennox Lewis, landed a textbook temple punch that dethroned Lewis, making Rahman the new heavyweight champion. However, upon draping red, white, and blue around his waist in their rematch, Rahman suffered the worst beating of his career as Lewis erased any doubt in anybody’s mind about the first fight, so much that a rubber match would be futile.
The very popular Felix “Tito” Trinidad chose a pair of red, white, and blue trunks to sport before enduring the worst physical punishment of his career against “The Executioner” and future undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins. Having previously been unbeaten, Trinidad laid it all on the line against Hopkins and may have even laid more on the line due to his choice of trunks. Coincidentally, one fight previous to fighting Hopkins, Trinidad had knocked out red, white, and blue wearing William Joppy in the fifth round.
Likewise, having previously been unbeaten “Sugar” Shane Mosley sealed his own fate in his locker room before fighting Vernon Forrest for the first time when he climbed into a pair of red, white, and blue trunks of his own on the night of January 26th 2002. This was probably the most resounding loss of Mosley’s career as he met the canvas on numerous occasions.
More recently, the much anticipated prospect Kermit Cintron tasted the canvas five times en route to his first professional loss, which came in devastating fashion to Antonio Margarito by fifth round knockout suffered while wearing red, white, and blue trunks.
And, finally, our latest item of proof that this theory still holds ground came last night on March 4th 2006 as Welsh Italian Joe Calzaghe filleted Jeff Lacy like a fish as he dissected and decimated both him and his red, white, and blue trunks over the course of twelve rounds in one of the most spectacular one-sided performances ever. In devastating the highly anticipated Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy in such a resounding matter Calzaghe not only earned himself pound for pound status, and the undisputed title but has contributed to furthering a theory that has held true for a long time and continues to recur time and time again. It is becoming almost automatic that fighters wearing red, white, and blue will lose in brutal fashion as demonstrated in the previously cited examples, which were by no means dud examples. All of the fights mentioned were major events in boxing, and most of them with the exception of Rahman vs. Lewis included a previously unbeaten fighter losing.
So, folks, let’s not be too hard on Jeff Lacy here because not only did he have a fight scheduled with The Welsh Italian Dragon Joe Calzaghe on March 4th, but a fight scheduled with science. And that, my friend, he could not possibly defend against.