Preview - Jermain Taylor vs. Jeff Lacy
Published November 14, 2008 by Martin Bean
Jermain Taylor takes on Jeff Lacy tomorrow night (Saturday November 15th) in what would have been a genuine Super Fight at the start of 2006. However, times have changed – Kelly Pavlik ended Taylor’s reign as Undisputed Middleweight Champion before cementing the victory in a rematch, whilst Lacy has never recovered from the systematic beating he had to endure from a sublime Joe Calzaghe.
As a result, there were a few groans made when this match was made – mainly due to Lacy’s involvement. Despite Taylor’s two successive defeats to Pavlik, he improved his performance in the rematch and still has a lot to offer at top level. Meanwhile and sadly, Lacy just looks a shot’ fighter these days. Despite winning three contests in succession since the Calzaghe defeat, he has struggled and been considered lucky to emerge with a victory in two of those three contests.
Lacy’s only hope is that he can land his favourite shot, the left hook, to put Taylor’s lights out. However, Lacy’s worst attribute happens to be Taylor’s best; speed. In view of this, it’s hard to see Lacy managing to land one of his powerful, yet cumbersome left hooks. So all seems to point towards a Taylor victory – but can he stop Lacy? Boxing Capital doesn’t think so. Lacy is a fiercely strong and proud fighter. It was almost miraculous that he managed to stay on his feet for twelve rounds against Calzaghe. Whilst not the man he once was, we don’t think Lacy has lost anything in the durability stakes yet.
Taylor can be expected to win a wide, unanimous points decision and put his name in the hat for good match ups that could be made in the Super Middleweight (168lbs) Division; Mikkel Kessler would make for a fantastic contest whilst I am sure Bernard Hopkins would like to avenge his two 2005 defeats to Taylor. As we mentioned at the start of the article, times change – a third Taylor vs. Hopkins match would’ve been unthinkable in 2006 but following Hopkins incredible defeat of Kelly Pavlik, it’s big box office again, provided Taylor can beat Lacy in style.
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