Jeff Lacy

Jeff Lacy
Data
Birth Name	Jeffrey Scott Lacy
Weight class	Super middleweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	May 12, 1977
place of birth	Saint Petersburg
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	29
Victories	25th
Knockout victories	17th
Defeats	3
No value	1

Jeff Lacy (born May 12, 1977 in Saint Petersburg , Florida , USA ) is an American professional boxer.

Amateur career

Lacy completed 221 fights as an amateur, of which he won 209. In 1998 he won the US Middleweight Championships, in 1999 he finished second.

When he took part in the amateur world championships in Budapest in 1997 , he was eliminated in the second round of the tournament. In 2000 he was a member of the US team at the Olympic Games in Sydney and lost prematurely in the quarterfinals to the later silver medalist Gaidarbek Gaidarbekow from Russia .

Professional career

Lacy played his first professional fight on February 2, 2001 and won a first-round knockout against Jerald Lowe. He won his first 16 fights and then met the unbeaten Ukrainian Vitaly Zypko in an IBF elimination match in April 2004 . Since Lacy caused a deep laceration on Zypko's forehead by an unintentional headbutt in the second round, the fight was stopped and not counted.

On October 2, 2004, Lacy won the IBF world title, which had become vacant after Sven Ottke's retirement, with a victory by technical knockout in the eighth round against Syd Vanderpool . He then defended the title four times, including against Omar Sheika and Robin Reid , before taking on WBO title holder Joe Calzaghe in Manchester on March 4, 2006 in an unification match . After largely convincing appearances in his previous fights and corresponding coverage in the US media, Lacy went into the fight with the underrated Calzaghe as the favorite, who enjoyed little recognition in the USA because he fought mainly in his home country and had a reputation for being tough opponents to get out of the way. Instead of the expected early victory by Lacy, Calzaghe dominated the fight from the first to the last round and finally won clearly on points.

In his first fight after this defeat, he met Vitaly Zypko for the second time in December 2006 in his hometown of Saint Petersburg. Over the distance of ten rounds, the judges awarded him a narrow and controversial point victory, which was regarded as flattering. A medical examination then revealed that he sustained a shoulder injury in the fight that required surgery.

Jeff Lacy did not play his next fight until twelve months later, in December 2007 he won a points against Peter Manfredo . He was also able to beat Colombian Epifanio Mendoza just barely on points in July 2008. Nevertheless, he was then nominated for an elimination match for the mandatory challenge right of the WBC Association against former middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor , who Lacy lost on November 15, 2008 clearly on points.

In 2009 he moved to the light heavyweight division. After another narrow points win against Otis Griffin, he went on August 15, 2009 against the 40-year-old Roy Jones junior and gave up the fight after the tenth round, hopelessly behind on points.

Web links

• Jeff Lacy in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Sven Ottke	World Super Middleweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) October 2, 2004 - March 4, 2006	Joe Calzaghe