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.