Éric Lucas, from underdog
to champion
By Benoît Lelièvre
12.08 - Since Éric Lucas has been crowned
the WBC super middleweight champion in July of 2001,
I heard plenty of different comments about him. What
pissed me off is, as soon as I cross the border I
hear this comment too often: paperchamp. For some
years, I've been chatting with people in the states,
in Argentina, Denmark, U.K....this comment got back
in the discussion again & again: paperchamp. Most
of the times, the people who were ready to crucifiate
Lucas never saw him fight!!! With this tribune i'll
set the record straight. I'll explain you who is Éric
Lucas and the awesome job he has done for canadian
boxing.
Let's first of all explain something. The end of
2000 & the first half of 2001 had been really
really bad for Interbox(Lucas promoting team &
the major promoting team in Canada). Stéphane
Ouellet left them, Dave Hilton, the first Quebec world
champion since more than ten years, had been condemned
to jail for child molesting and Fathi Missaoui, who
was supposed to be the rising star, had a contractual
dispute with Interbox and left them. Things we're
going really bad!
They had a single hope left. Éric Lucas,
who haven't box for 14 months, who never had a serious
fight in over a year and a half. Since his defeat
to Glen Catley, Éric had only a meaningless
fight, against Lennox John Lewis. Due to his #1 position
at the WBC, he was given the occasion to avenge a
very humiliating defeat against Glen Catley, in front
of his fans.
On July 10, in a fight aired on ESPN2 Tuesday Night
Fight, Éric knocked Glen Catley out cold in
the seventh round to win the WBC belt. With this impressive
victory, Éric replaced his promotinbg team
in the right track. It had a tremendous effect on
boxing here. Éric Lucas had became a role model
for a lot of kids. Very good for Éric, a well
disearved success. Let's see what he endured to get
there...
After a good but not outstanding amateur career,
Éric got into boxing with very low expectations.
He just wanted to seize the canadian belt...which
he did in his eleventh fight against Laurie Gross.
Even with his objective accomplished, Éric
continued his way into boxing, gettin a minor WBC
Continental Americas belt against Mike Belcher. He
also beat on his way, two seasonned veterans, Undra
White & Charles Oliver.
Éric finally had the chance to prove himself
in the U.S with a fight against Bryant Brannon for
the NABF title. Fighting backward, Éric lost
an unanimous decision this night at the Blue Horizon.
Éric and Yvon Michel we're so discouraged that
night that Yvon said to Éric after the fight:"I
think you should begin to search for a day job."
Few months later, Éric had a surprising call,
an invitation to fight for the WBC light heavyweight
championship against Fabrice Tiozzo in St-Etienne,
France. Many of the north american fans never saw
that fight, but Éric..who was barely a super
middleweight fought his heart out against the way
much bigger Tiozzo and lasted twelve rounds. Instead
of discouraging Éric, this fight pumped him.
Six months later, Éric was on HBO, lasting
eleven full rounds against Roy Jones even if the commentators
predicted a fast K.O for Jones. Roy admitted later
that he never felt comfortable with Éric style...and
hired him as a sparring partner.
Encouraged by those good performances, Éric
worked his way back to the top: Richard Frazier, Antwun
Echols(draw), Demetrius Davis, Kevin Pompey, Segundo
Mercado(brutal knock out), Juan Carlos Viloria...and
finally Catley. What much people dosen't know about
that first Lucas-Catley fight is that Éric
fought the whole fight with a broken hand. He gave
Catley a tough fight with a broken hand! What's why
he never had been very nervous about the idea of fighting
Catley a second time.
The two first defenses for Éric occured against
Dingaan Thobela (mandatory) & Vinny Pazienza.
Éric was the second boxer to knock Dingaan
out in a fight. Even if he don't have a lot of K.O's
to his record, he showed the world that he's improved.
Éric Lucas is not the guy who lost to Bryant
Brannon seven years ago. His defens is still rock
solid, but he worked hard in the gym to improve his
weight transfer...what gave him a way better punching
power. He use the ring at his advantage & always
have a solid fight plan.
People could say that his record is underwhealming...but
Éric proved that with some hard work and some
dedication to the sport, everything is possible. Some
people might say i'm crazy, but I expect Éric
to fight Sheika like Calzaghe did. Éric survived
Roy Jones & Fabrice Tiozzo punches. Expect him
to beat up a bloody Sheika into a doctor stoppage.
Unlike Sven Ottke & Byron Mitchell, Lucas became
a champ the hard way. That's what will make him durable
as a champ. Lucas tko6 Sheika.