When St. Petersburg boxer Winky Wright fought overseas for much of his early career, it was viewed by most as a bad move that prevented the IBF champion from developing a strong American following.
But for Wright's friend and fellow local resident Jeff Lacy, it made perfect sense.
Tonight at the Men Arena in Manchester, U.K., Lacy takes on Donnell Wiggins in a super middleweight bout that will be televised at 9 by Showtime.
It will be Lacy's second fight overseas, but his weight class leaves him no choice. WBO champion Joe Calzaghe of Wales fights exclusively in Britain and IBF and WBA champ Sven Ottke and WBC champ Markus Beyer are German fighters.
"The only reason that we're going over there is to get the audience's attention out there," Lacy told fightnews.com. "All of the champions are from foreign countries, so it's good I get accustomed to fighting on their turf."
Lacy is hoping to look more impressive than he did in his last fight, a 12-round unanimous decision over Richard Grant. While Grant was knocked down twice and dominated, Lacy's mighty reputation as a knockout artist always suffers when he fails to deliver, even if he wins a clear and easy decision.
Now 15-0, Lacy, 26, looks to position himself for a title shot next year. He is ranked No.7 by the WBO, No.8 by the WBC, and No.13 by the WBA.
In Wiggins, Lacy gets a fighter who debuted as a heavyweight but lacks punching power and is the WBC's 15th-ranked light heavyweight. Though he holds the NABF light heavyweight title, Wiggins has 11 knockouts in 20 wins (with two losses). In Lacy's only other fight outside the country, he knocked out Jason Collins in one round in Wales.
A CLOSE EYE: Lacy's fight, on the undercard of a Ricky Hatton-Ben Tackie 140-pound main event, will be overshadowed by Don King's card in Atlantic City, that features eight fights, including five title bouts.
Among the fights: Zab Judah will defend his WBO junior welterweight title; Hasim Rahman takes on John Ruiz in a heavyweight elimination bout (with the winner getting a shot at Roy Jones' WBA title); Ricardo Mayorga and Cory Spinks will unify the welterweight titles; and Bernard Hopkins will defend his WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles against William Joppy.
Wright will be an interested spectator. He has said that Hopkins promised him a fight, and the middleweight champ has been quoted as affirming that claim.
Recently, however, there have been mixed signals. In one interview, Hopkins, who is 39, said his "priority" would be to close his career with Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Mayorga.
Uh-oh.
In a different interview, though, Hopkins said his "first choice" would be a round-robin tournament pitting him against Wright and De La Hoya against Fernando Vargas.
So, will it be the "priority," or the "first choice"?
Knowing Wright's luck, and the way boxers talk out of both sides of their mouth, don't be surprised if it's neither.
BRACE YOURSELF: Just as the jury was debating Terry Norris' claim that King stole money from him, the promoter settled with the former champion for $7.5-million.
King will pay $3-million this week, and the rest over the next 15 months.
King might want to consider stashing away some of his earnings from tonight's big pay-per-view - Norris attorney Judd Burstein predicts the outcome of his case could result in more boxers coming forward to sue King.
BIG MONEY: The Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko fight on HBO in June drew 4.6-million homes, the highest-rated fight of the year, most likely because Lewis was the headliner.
But Klitschko is proving to be a draw himself. His destruction of Kirk Johnson in two rounds Saturday drew 2.95-million homes, making it HBO's second-highest rated fight of the year.
- John C. Cotey can be reached at cotey@sptimes.com Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
