Joe Calzaghe 40–0 (31 KO) vs. Jeff Lacy 21–0 (1) (17 KO), billed as Judgement Day, was a professional boxing match contested on 4 March 2006, for the IBF, WBO and The Ring championship. It pitted long-time WBO champion Calzaghe against up and coming IBF champion, American Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy.

Joe Calzaghe had been WBO super middleweight champion for over eight years having beaten Chris Eubank for the vacant title in 1997. He had held onto his belt for 17 defences and was considered on the fringes of being one of the best fighters of the world.

Jeff Lacy was an American champion who had been compared to Mike Tyson in size and was considered one of the hottest prospects in American boxing. In 2004 he won the IBF title against Syd Vanderpool by TKO in the eighth round.
Most American journalists wrote off Calzaghe’s chances of victory and the odds were against Calzaghe despite having an equally perfect record, and even people in the UK doubted him.

Prior to the fight, Calzaghe was worried about his left hand after breaking it against Evans Ashira. He contemplated pulling out of the fight only for his father Enzo and Frank Warren to persuade him to take a potentially life-changing fight.

The fight was staged at 2.00am local time at the MEN Arena in Manchester and topped the bill on Frank Warren’s Sport Network and was live on ITV in the UK and Showtime in the United States. The Ring announcer was Jimmy Lennon, Jr. and the referee was Raul Caiz.

🥊SUCKERPUNCH BOXING🥊
————————————————————
PLEASE LIKE 👍🏻 & SUBSCRIBE ✅
————————————————————
#BOXING #FIGHTS #DOCUMENTARY #FULLFIGHTS #CLASSICFIGHTS #UKBOXING

source