18 years ago

Date: 4th March 2006

Venue: M.E.N. Arena, Manchester, UK

Title: IBF & WBO World Super-middleweight Title

Promoter: Frank Warren

Tv: Showtime, ITV

Joe Calzaghe
( 40 - 0 - 0 )
Weight: 168 lbs

Jeff Lacy
( 21 - 0 - 0 )
Weight: 167 lbs

For years Joe Calzaghe waited for an opponent whom the boxing media would give him credit for defeating. Enter unbeaten IBF champion Jeff "Left hook" Lacy, a knockout artist that American fans and Tv executives had gotten excited about.

Lacy made himself known to the British boxing fans 7 months earlier when he forced former WBC champion Robin Reid to retire after 7 rounds in Tampa, Florida in defence of his IBF and IBO straps.

Now, Lacy came to the UK as a heavy-betting favourite to topple Calzaghe who was making the 18th defence of the title he won in a vacant title match with Chris Eubank in 1997. At 29 years old, the American looked like and was sometimes called "a mini Mike Tyson" such was the ferocity with which he had dispatched 17 of his 21 victims thus far.

The saying "you never see a poor bookie" is in most cases true, but on this night, Newbridge's most famous resident, Joseph Calzaghe made the oddsmakers look like fools with a one-sided beat down that will go down in super-middleweight history as one of the greatest performances ever.

Simply put, Jeff Lacy had absolutely no chance of beating Calzaghe on this night. Probably none of the other 168lb champions or highly ranked contenders nor anyone active in the 175lb ranks could have coped with the hurricane that was Calzaghe on this night.

Scores: Adalaide Byrd 119-107 | Roy Francis 119-107 | Nelson Vazquez 119-105