UBO Challenger: Jeff "Left Hook" Lacy                                               

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October 1, 2020 / BY UBO PRESS OFFICER

Coming out of the Olympics, he signed a professional contract with promotional power-house Main Events, and made his paid debut in February of 2001.

He quickly established a reputation of being an entertaining fighter with big punching-power, and went 16-0 (13) in less than three years, beating solid names such as Ross Thompson (25-6-1), James Crawford (37-3-2) and Anwar Oshana (23-2).

In October of 2004 he won the vacant IBF World title by stopping Syd Vanderpool (35-2) in eight rounds, and made four defenses before losing it to WBO ruler Joe Calzaghe in a 2006 unification Super-Fight.

Before that had added the IBO world title by defeating Robin Reid (38-4-1).

Following the loss to Calzaghe, Lacy rebounded with three good wins over Vitaliy Tsypko (19-1), Peter Manfredo (28-4) and Epifanio Mendoza (28-5-1), all on points, but then lost a world title eliminator to Jermain Taylor (27-2-1).

In the spring of 2009 he beat Otis Griffin (19-4-2), but then came up short when legendary former UBO Inter-Continental Champion Roy Jones Jr. (53-5) made him retire before the tenth round of their Light Heavyweight encounter the following August.

Dropping back down to Super Middleweight, Lacy took on Dhafir “No Fear” Smith (23-19-7) for the vacant UBO International title on December 11, 2010 in his home town, and was a clear favorite going in.

Unfortunately he was not quite what he used to be, and Smith put on a wonderful performance, as the underdog deservedly won by wide unanimous decision.

Lacy fought four more times, going 2-2, before retiring in 2015 with a 27-6 (18) record.