03.12.06 – By Ted Sares: After watching Jeff “No Left Hook” Lacy stumble his way through 10 rounds with his eye closing and his shoulder not working against another tough Ukrainian guy named Vitali (Tsypko, this time), I am getting ready to close the books on many of the super middleweights and more particularly the light heavyweights..
Thank God for guys like Calzaghe and Kessler….and Julio Gonzalez, Tomasz Adamek and Paul Briggs who come to fight. Or the likes of Clinton Woods and Glen Johnson. There may be a few others out there like Stipe Drews or Librado Andrade, and possibly even Jorge Fernando Castro, 129-11-3. …but not many. And Robert Stieglitz, 29-0, needs to fight somewhere outside of Germany to prove his mettle. Speaking of Germany, there was, of course, Dariusz Michalczewski and Henry Maske. But I wonder if they would have traveled to Brisbane, Australia, to knock out a Tony Mundine as did “Indian” Yaqui Lopez, 63-15 and out of storied Stockton, CA, in 1981. I wonder if they would travel to the Great Gorge Playboy Club in McAfee, NJ, and fight a 15 rounder with tough Matthew Saad Muhammad.
Would they travel to Teatro Tenda “La Bussola”, Viareggio, Italy and fight rugged Victor Galindez. Or how about the Forum in Copenhagen for a go at John Conteh? Would Philadelphia, Rome or Las Vegas be to your liking Dariusz or Henry? How about Portland, to fight mean Andy Kendall? Or the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, Convention Center in Atlantic City to tangle with Michael Spinks or the Felt Forum in New York for a spat with Mike Rossman?
Ah, I know, how about a tussle with James “Great” Scott in Rahway State Prison in NJ? Let’s see how the judges would treat you in there. And then there is the Roy Jones Jr. era in which guys like Antonio Tarver and Montell Griffin duke it out. The Derrick Harmon’s and David Telseco’s, the Eric Harding’s, Richard Hall’s, Virgil Hill, Richard Frazier and Otis Grant. Hey, I’m still not impressed.
But getting back to Lacy, he has become a “low risk – high reward” type of opponent. One who now should be targeted by prospects to make a name. But it isn’t just Lacey who turns me off (and he never really turned me on) as much it is my memory of a time when guys like the aforementioned “Indian” Yaqui Lopez, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Marvin Johnson, John Conteh, Victor Galindez, Andy Kendall, James Scott, Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Mike Quarry, Mike Rossman, Richie Kates, Pierre Fourie, Murray Sutherland, Lottie Mwale, Dennis Andries, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, Jorge Victor Ahumada, Bobby Cassidy, Bobby Czyz, James Kinchen, Bunny Johnson, Bash Ali, Billy Douglas, and a couple of guys named Spinks and Foster were duking it out among themselves.
My Lord, the Saad, Johnson, Lopez, Qawi, Galindez, Rossman match ups were classics. That was a golden age for the light heavyweight division.
No, after watching Lacy stumbling, bumbling and lunging all over the ring on Saturday night, I yearn for a time when a guy like “Indian” Yaqui Lopez, who never won a piece of the light heavyweight title despite four attempts, would’ve taken him (and all the other pretenders ) apart.
“Indian” Yaqui vs. “Left Hook” at the same weight and prime vs. prime…………..no contest!