Boxing

Lacy won't be distracted

The hometown hero remains focused on tonight's opponent at the Times Forum.

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published August 6, 2005

TAMPA - Jeff Lacy is a 4-to-1 favorite to win tonight's fight against Robin Reid because he is the younger and supposedly stronger fighter, but also because he is fighting in his hometown.

In boxing, more than any other sport, there is usually no better advantage to have.

Usually.

One does not have to look far - this year, to be exact - to find cases of hometown fighters not only losing in their hometown, but looking bad doing it.

Cory Spinks attracted a record crowd of 23,000 in St. Louis, which was hosting its first major fight since 1952. He entered the ring while rapping a duet with fellow St. Louis homey Nelly. About 30 minutes later, Spinks was knocked out by Zab Judah, losing all three of his welterweight title bouts. They hung Polish flags around the United Center in Chicago before Warsaw-born but Windy City resident Andrew Golota fought Lamon Brewster for the WBO heavyweight title. The city's strong Polish population showed up and got to see their hero for all of two minutes as he was knocked down three times.

And earlier this summer, Arturo Gatti singlehandedly sold out the 12,000-seat Boardwalk Hall at Atlantic City, just a short jab from his home in New Jersey, and Floyd Mayweather made fans wonder why they even bothered to drive down for the short mismatch.

None of this is lost on Lacy, who takes on Reid at the St. Pete Times Forum. But he guarantees this:

"It won't happen to me."

Promoter Gary Shaw didn't want to bring Lacy to Tampa; it was more Lacy insisting this was where he wanted to fight.

Shaw knows all about the hometown stumbles this year. But as camp wrapped up this week, he was very pleased with what he saw.

"We agreed from day one, no tickets, zero," Shaw said. "And to this second, he has never asked me about one credential. Nothing about where anybody's sitting. Not once. I've been in fights where the fighter loses focus: "I need eight credentials, where are they sitting, what are we doing?' And they let that take away from what they've got to do. Not with Jeff."

Lacy's first order of business was changing his cell phone message, letting callers know he was out of tickets.

"Maybe I really wasn't, but that's what it said on my voicemail," Lacy said. "That's what kept a lot of people away. You can tell who was calling for tickets. They were the ones that didn't leave a message."

Lacy has an advantage over other boxers in that he doesn't have a posse. All camp, he has primarily been seen with three people: trainer Dan Birmingham and strength and conditioning coaches Keith Stewart and Darryl Hudson.

In the gym - which has a sign posted out front telling people to stay away - he has been a picture of focused energy, more intense than in previous camps. Before his IBF title fight with Syd Vanderpool, Lacy was playful at times, even throwing a few punches and a wink at ringside observers during early workouts.

This camp, it was all business.

"I think I trained harder for this fight than I did for the world title," Lacy said. "I don't think a lot of fighters do when they are fighting at home. They figure the crowd is going to lift them up and fill that gap for not doing what they have to do in training."

Lacy says make no mistake - the crowd will have an effect on him. But instead of coming into the fight at 90 percent and depending on the hometown fans to get him to 100, he says he will enter the ring in peak condition.

The crowd will merely push him over that threshold, making the old cliche about giving 110 percent actually fit.

"If it was 200 people," Lacy said, "I'd fight the same way."

"That crowd will be uplifting," Shaw said. "He will perform at his maximum peak. However long this fight goes, he is ready. But he didn't train for the crowd; he trained for the fight."

Lacy was brilliant the last time he fought in his hometown. He beat No. 1-ranked Jerson Ravelo at the U.S. Olympic team trials at Tampa Port Authority, clobbered Randy Griffin at the Tampa Convention Center to clinch a spot in the boxoffs, then returned a month later to soundly defeat Venezuelan Jhim Rodriguez in the Americas Qualifier at the Expo Hall.

The crowds were boisterous, and Lacy fought as if possessed.

"I loved fighting at home," Lacy said. "I mean, the crowd, the energy, that really kept me going."

Maybe even too much, his coaches at the time said. However, that was a younger, more-eager-to-please Lacy. The pro version has a different demeanor, more relaxed and more businesslike with Birmingham there to reel him in if necessary.

"Jeff knows what the job is ahead of him," Birmingham said. "He doesn't need me or anyone else telling him. The crowd will help him, no question. But the reason Jeff will win has nothing to do with the crowd and everything to do with the way he trained, the effort he put into it. The guy is focused. Trust me. He's ready."

Doors open at 6 p.m. Lacy and Reid will fight at about 10 p.m.

TV: 9 p.m., Showtime.

[Last modified August 6, 2005, 01:37:26]