He won’t win the fighter of the year award, but super middleweight Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy was certainly among 2004’s success stories. In October, Lacy became the first member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team to win a world title by stopping Syd Vanderpool in the eighth round. His road to the title was uneven; he was slowed by hand injuries, eye cuts, and a change of trainers. The one constant remained Lacy’s power, and in a pair of gruelling battles, he punched his way past Vanderpool and, in defence number one, Omar Sheika.
The 27-year-old Lacy, 18-0 (14 KOs), outpointed Sheika on 4 December in Las Vegas (reported elsewhere in this issue). The next morning, Boxing Monthly visited with the IBF super middleweight champion in Lacy’s suite at the Mandalay Bay.
BM: Seems it’s true that it’s tougher to keep the title than to win it.
JL: People come out harder, you know. But you’re not giving that title up the first time.
BM: You said at the postfight press conference that you knew Sheika was going to be extra-determined. Was that because you thought he’d be desperate in his third try at a title?
JL: Not that he’d be desperate. He figured he was fighting a young up-and-coming guy who just got the title. He was gonna come out hungry. I guess he figured this would be the last chance he’d have to fight for a world title. Even when guys are on the last legs of their career, they come out hard against me because I’m inexperienced. And they want to come out and show people they still have it.
BM: Amazing, but you and Sheika are the same age.
JL: We’re the same age, but he’s been around a lot longer [laughs].
BM: This is the second Showtime-televised card in which you stole the show. You did the same with the Vanderpool fight.
JL: I never want to be boring because that’s what pays our bills. The fans pay our bills. The last two fights, [his opponents] were fighting for a world title. They just looked at my punching power and figured that’s all I have. They’re getting to see a different side of me that they didn’t see in the beginning of my career.
BM: This is a question I’ve asked Arturo Gatti: Would you like to be known as the most exciting fighter in boxing and occasionally lose? Or would you rather be occasionally boring and always win?
JL: I think I’m gonna go with occasionally boring and always win because I hate to lose. Some fights you’re not gonna look spectacular. Different styles of fights. You’re not gonna knock everybody out. A lot of people figured I was gonna go in there and knock Sheika out. But he took some big shots. He was hurt, but he was determined, and that’s what kept him in the fight. He’d grab and stay in there. He did everything he could to win the title last night.
BM: As a pro, have you ever hit someone with as many big shots and not had him go?
JL: In the Bobby Jones fight [March 2002], I was hitting him, but my hands were hurt, so I couldn’t continue to punch hard. People were saying: “He doesn’t have the enthusiasm.” They didn’t know my hands were hurt. But this fight my hands were perfect. He’s just a tough veteran. The experience showed.
BM: Do you feel that perhaps you took this fight too soon after the Vanderpool fight? That was a tough one, and Sheika came only two months later.
JL: I don’t feel like it was too soon. It was perfect timing. Any time I come out of the ring without injuries … I’m not gonna sit on this title and fight once or twice a year. I want to stay out there in the public eye. Coming up in boxing right now, there’s really nothing. Boxing needs someone like me right now.
BM: From a technical standpoint last night, I thought the positive was that your right hand was the best I’ve ever seen it. The negatives: very few jabs and not enough bodypunching. Agree?
JL: The bodypunching, I did a fair amount later on. He was leaning in with his head a lot and I was very conscious about suffering any head butts. I was thinking about three different things when I was in there: fighting him, fighting his head, and fighting him holding me. I think I dealt with the obstacles in front of me as well as I could, being that it was my 18th professional fight.
BM: I know how much it meant to you to win the title. Was there a little bit of an emotional letdown because you had just reached your goal?
JL: I had won that title a million times in my head, and once I did it for real, it was like a déjà vu type of thing. It was emotional because of all the doubters: Is Vanderpool too much for Lacy? Will his zero go this time? All my emotions came out after the fight because I had answered what people didn’t know about me.
BM: If I had taken a poll of the members of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team and asked them to name which fighter would be the first to win a world title, where would Jeff Lacy have appeared on the list?
JL: In the beginning, you see a lot of young fighters pushed out there to do certain things. In the beginning of my career, we were limited to only a certain amount of guys who would get into the ring for [little] money. We were looking at four years. I left everything with my people. The injuries helped me deal with obstacles during fights, and that turned out to be a good thing.
BM: Who would you have guessed would’ve been first to a title?
JL: I would’ve thought Ricardo Williams would’ve done well because he had more of a Sugar Ray-Shane Mosley type style. The fans would catch on to his speed and charisma and nice boxing ability. Rocky Juarez is knocking at the door, and Jermain Taylor, of course. And Jose Navarro is coming up. With my punching power, I just got a chance. To me, it’s not a race. Some people try and put on extra pressure, but I just happen to handle pressure very well. Fighting Vanderpool, I think I would’ve been okay either way it turned out because I made a big jump getting in with a guy who had been in with Bernard Hopkins.
BM: In winning the title, how much was based on physical ability and how much on pure determination?
JL: If I had to split it up, I’d say 75 percent of it was determination. I trained so hard for that fight. I like being the underdog. [Actually, Lacy was a slight favourite vs Vanderpool.] It makes me rise to the occasion. I was an underdog going into the Olympics [Trials]. There’s something about proving people wrong about me and my talent. It really gets me determined.
BM: Your path has hardly been trouble-free. Which was toughest to overcome: the hand problems, the eye cuts, or the change in trainers, from Roger Bloodworth to Dan Birmingham?
JL: It was more about me worrying about my eye blowing up when I was cut in the Richard Grant fight [in July 2003]. I was a little worried because my first fight back, Donnell Wiggins was targeting the left eye and it blew up. I knew my hands would be okay and I’d still have my punching power, but the eye — David Reid had the same thing. In dealing with your vision, especially when you’re fighting bigger and better opponents, that was my biggest fear. I didn’t know how my eye would take. It’ll still swell a little, but it won’t blow up like it did in the Wiggins fight.
BM: Changing trainers early in a prospect’s career is fairly unusual. What weren’t you getting from Bloodworth, and what does Birmingham, who’s worked with you in the past, bring?
JL: It wasn’t my choice to change trainers. It was more my team. They wanted a signature fighter, someone who was really gonna attract attention. And that was me. With the physique I have and the punching power, I was marketable. So it was to get the right trainer to get me to the next part of my career.
BM: But you’re the fighter. If you didn’t want to make the change, it wouldn’t have been made, right?
JL: I really didn’t have a choice because I didn’t really want a lot of chaos in camp. Roger understood. Everybody understood. But I didn’t really like the fact that we got rid of Roger because I really like Roger. I tried Freddie Roach. I went out to L.A., and it really wasn’t my speed. I couldn’t get relaxed in L.A. Getting with Dan, being that I was with him before, we went back to basics. It really brought my boxing style back.
BM: You’re such a strong puncher. Is it difficult incorporating boxing into your style?
JL: One thing about having the punching power, you always have it in the back of your mind that you can end a fight at any time. Going out there and trying things, it can only help. Everything is really coming together for me. I’m fighting guys who want the title. They’re not coming to survive. And that’s when the best comes out in me. That’s what you’ve seen in the last two fights. I rise to the occasion.
BM: Do you think you’ll eventually be a light-heavyweight?
JL: Yeah, I think I’ll bloom into a light-heavyweight. My plan is to become undisputed super middleweight champion, perhaps move down to 160 and challenge Bernard Hopkins or Jermain Taylor for the title there, and move back up to 175 and win a title there. I walk around between about 178 and 183.
BM: It’s funny how boxing works: Scott Pemberton twice beats Sheika, and Sheika gets the title shot against you. How about Pemberton? He’s a big puncher and you’re a big puncher …
JL: I’ve been in training camp with Scott. He’s a really nice guy. I see a fight between me and him coming down. I can’t have a Sheika fight and not have a Scott fight.
BM: In the back of your mind, who is the one opponent who will eventually make Jeff Lacy a superstar?
JL: It’s gonna take somebody like a Hopkins, like a Calzaghe, even an Antwun Echols. Everybody knows that’s another guy who can punch. And he’s got the experience of being in the ring with Bernard Hopkins. I need fighters like that to show everybody that I’m serious. I feel like I’m on the right track. I’m not taking no bums. I’m fighting real fighters.
BM: Quick responses: Your neighbour Winky Wright: What happens if he fights Hopkins?
JL: I think Winky has a great chance of outboxing him. I haven’t seen Winky really box since he fought [Fernando] Vargas. He really has great boxing skills. He’ll be on his feet, he won’t be in front of Hopkins. I see Winky taking a close decision.
BM: And Jermain Taylor vs Hopkins?
JL: Jermain has a chance. It’s almost like flipping a coin. But it’s gonna take somebody who roughs him up. I don’t think Jermain’s gonna do that. [Hopkins] will take Jermain out of his game plan.
BM: Mike Tyson.
JL: Trouble. He’s looking for someone to love him. If he had the love he had when he was a young heavyweight, I think everything would go away. With everybody on him now, the press and everybody blowing things out of proportion, it’s gonna be hard to get him back.
BM: Today’s heavyweight division.
JL: It’s in need of somebody like me. But I can’t go there [laughs].
BM: Why should I believe money and fame won’t change you?
JL: Because of my love for the sport. Everybody looks to me to have magnificent punching power. But they don’t understand that I have that punching power through 12 rounds. That should tell a lot of people that I’m not just in there for the money or just to knock people out. I’m conditioning myself to entertain for 12 rounds, and that comes from the love for the sport.
BM: If you weren’t a fighter, what would you be?
JL: A fireman. I always wanted to be a fireman, but you never go out and do what you wanted to do.
BM: Roy Jones.
JL: I think he got to the point in his career where he’s not waking up for fights. Tarver talked him out of his game mentally before he got in the ring. It took a big toll on him in the first fight. And he lost all the weight coming down. And that might’ve been why he took the second fight. Then he said: “I feel a lot better, I came down much sooner,” and then he went to sleep on it. He went to sleep on Tarver’s boxing ability. That’s really where all of his mistakes came from. He underestimated Tarver. Now if he just takes a rest and comes back like [Felix] Trinidad did, it doesn’t work that way. When you’re old, your body doesn’t work that way. I think he’s taking off some time, and I don’t think he’ll come back to the ring. It’s already too late.
BM: Given your physique, have you been challenged outside the ring?
JL: Actually, I haven’t been in a fight outside the ring. I don’t put myself in a position. When you go out drinking, people get bullet-proof.
BM: Do people ask you if they can borrow your body for one day?
JL: Gary [laughs]. [Gary Shaw is Lacy’s promoter.]
BM: I’ll be second in line then.
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