NO HOLDS BARRED

Photo: TOM CASINO/SHOWTIME

Joe Calzaghe put on a brilliant performance for 12 rounds Saturday night (actually early Sunday morning in the UK) to outbox, outland, outclass, and outwork a thoroughly baffled Jeff Lacy. Calzaghe won every round on every judge’s scorecard, only losing a point for holding in the 11th round. He decked Lacy in the 12th to knock him down for the first time in his career en route to handing Lacy his first pro defeat. Official scores were 119-107 twice and 119-105.

Held at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England, this fight also resulted in Calzaghe, the reigning WBO super middleweight champion, capturing the IBF belt from Lacy as well as winning The Ring’s championship belt.

More importantly, it established Calzaghe, now 41-0 with 31 KOs, as one of the truly elite fighters of our time. Calzaghe said afterwards that he might go up to light heavyweight next, but was not sure if he would. Lacy, now 21-1 with 17 KOs, is still only 28, and has time to regroup if this fight did not damage him either physically or mentally that much.

The fight was televised live in the UK on ITV and in the USA by Showtime.

Lead stories about this memorable fight appear on TheSweetScience.com and SecondsOut.com. The Showtime post-fight press release can be seen here.