Lacy Still Fears Calzaghe Will Chicken Out at 11th Hour

The Super Middleweight Title unification fight between Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe is two weeks away but IBF & IBO Champion Jeff Lacy still has concerns that The WBO Champ Calzaghe will find a way to pull out of this one before it is consummated, and he told Boxing2006 his worries in an Exclusive interview you can read and listen to only here!

“He has a history of it (pulling out) and I have trained very hard, I'll be pissed, I'll be very pissed if he pulls out at the last minute," said Lacy, who has had fears of Calzaghe pulling out long before this match was officially made.

 Lacy agreed to the fight only after a massive penalty for pullout was written into the contract by his promoter Gary Shaw, widely reported as between $500,000-$600,000

Lacy went on to say, “The only respect that I have for Calzaghe right now is for him not pulling out of this fight! There was a chance that he could have pulled out of this fight, but now it's two weeks away and it's getting closer and closer, but I still got my fingers crossed that he don't pull out of this fight, I mean, he has called out other fighters in the past and it never went down.”

Lacy knows first hand about the M.O. of Calzaghe who pulled out of a November 5^th 2005 fight with Lacy due to a hand injury that forced Jeff to take on Scott Pemberton whom he blew out in quick fashion. Lacy added, “All my focus for the last 2 months has been on this fight, so hopefully he will continue to walk the walk. You know... that he "say's" he's always been walking."

Fearful of looking too far into the future Lacy tried to dodge the proverbial, “what are you going to do after this fight” question, but he couldn’t help but speculate and prognosticate about what his future may hold, " In the year 2006 I'm looking for all the big names, and I am not kidding when I say that! Everybody sees me as that throwback fighter from back in the day who is willing to fight any and everybody! I am looking to make history, and that's fighting everybody that's out there that's causing a threat, I want to go down as a legend in boxing, I am not going to tip toe my way through "my life" in boxing."

Part of Lacy’s future lies in the hands of the almighty networks, of which Jeff has been a featured fighter on Showtime over the past year. When asked about the quiet rumblings heard that HBO is prepared to make him an exclusive contract fighter if he should jump ship to their network, Lacy replied, "It all goes back to, and depends on my people, what me and my team thinks! I am open to negotiations, trust me! I am open to negotiations and I think that's what it's all going to boil down to, is negotiations... and if I am with HBO or Showtime, either way, it'll be great for me because I'll be doing something I know everybody loves."

As soon as Jeff mentioned negotiations, I couldn’t help but think about his friend and stable mate Winky Wright, who has gone through some very “interesting” negotiations of his own over the past weeks, and I had to get Jeff’s thoughts on his pal’s dealings.

"I think you have to hear both sides of the story”, replied Lacy, “Winky is coming on to his last couple of fights and he has worked so hard to get to this point. And basically, Winky's just trying to look out for Winky at times. You know there’s a lot of people in this business who are trying to put their hands where they shouldn’t be, so I think  Winky is just looking out for him, and he might make some mistakes, but at least he understands they were his mistakes and no one else’s! As long as he can take the blame for what he is doing...it's cool then! He's still my boy, I am not going to look at him no different, he's just trying to look out for himself!"

Would Jeff have any interest climbing aboard the Winky bus and fighting for him if his promotion company ever sets its wheels on the asphalt? "Actually, I have a promotional company formed too! I am looking to do some of that to in the future, when my career and everything starts to slow down."

I commented that Jeff’s career is far from slowing down and maybe it would be a while then before we would see Lacy the Promoter. Lacy just kind of laughed as he said, “Sometime in the future maybe...you never know!"

And what interview would be complete without the obligatory and overused, “can you give me prediction” question?

Jeff fielded this one like he had it on autopilot,  " It's gonna be an awesome fight, and I am not going over there to take a decision! Look at our aggressive styles...on paper it's not supposed to go the distance, and that's what I am saying, he is going to have to knock me out cuz I'm coming over there to fight...and to Knock him out!"

Click here to listen to everything Jeff had to say
(9 min audio)....as always this audio is FREE!