Boxing

UK bout vexing for Lacy camp

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published September 6, 2005

WBO super-middleweight champ Joe Calzaghe meets Evans Ashira in Wales on Saturday night, and it's hard to tell who's more nervous.

Calzaghe, or Jeff Lacy and promoter Gary Shaw .

Though the fight won't be shown in the United States, Shaw plans to keep tabs however he can.

If Calzaghe wins, it is supposed to set up a Nov.5 unification bout with Lacy, the IBF champion.

But Calzaghe's history of injuries, and his willingness to embrace the possibility of an injury against Ashira spoiling his bout with Lacy, has Shaw nervous.

Even this weekend, Calzaghe's promoter, Frank Warren , was quoted by Wales Web site icWales saying the Nov.5 fight "isn't a foregone conclusion for Joe. But he must come through the Ashira fight without picking up any injuries."

The same Web site estimated Calzaghe watchers are not sure if he has withdrawn from fights with injury or other maladies 14 or 15 times.

Either the fighter and his promoter are playing mind games, or those who have booked flights to London for Lacy-Calzaghe have made an expensive mistake.

BY A DIFFERENT NAME: At least one big-time promoter is guaranteeing Lacy will be fighting Nov.5 to unify the WBO and IBF belts - Don King .

But that fight won't be against the 39-0 Calzaghe, King says, but his fighter, the 24-1 Ashira.

"Scratch that! It's all over! Calzaghe's reign is over," King told icWales. "There ain't no Jeff Lacy for Joe Calzaghe; it will be Evans Ashira against Jeff Lacy."

Ashira, who has only lost once, is seen by most as an easy tuneup for Calzaghe. After getting knocked out in the second round by WBA middleweight champ Maselino Masoe at the Miami Jai-Alai fronton in 2004, he came back in April and scored a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten prospect Quentin Smith .

Smith, who is from Winter Haven and defeated Lacy twice in the amateur ranks, was 21-0.

"Ashira is going to shock the world," King said. "Calzaghe thinks he has an easy opponent but they have found a bomb and that bomb is going to explode next weekend in Cardiff.

"We are coming to win and I think so much of Evans that I'm coming to Cardiff so we can go back with the belt to America."

Calzaghe, boxing's longest reigning champion at eight years, is a 33-1 favorite to win in his hometown.

PAC'S BACK: Shaw should know about Calzaghe before his newest acquisition, Manny Pacquiao , takes on Hector Velazquez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles the same night. Pac-Man is scheduled to fight on the undercard of the Erik Morales - Zahir Raheem , with the winners possibly meeting in a rematch of their fight earlier this year.

GAINING WEIGHT: Panamanian Guillermo Jones , a former welterweight, beat former WBA and WBC champion Wayne Braithwaite on Saturday in a WBA cruiserweight eliminator. After a dominating first round, Jones finished Braithwaite with a fourth-round TKO. His previous fight, he beat former IBF cruiserweight champ Kelvin Davis by fourth-round TKO. Not bad for a guy who started 10 years ago fighting at 145 pounds.

GAINING MOMENTUM: Now that IBF heavyweight champ Chris Byrd has signed to fight mandatory challenger DaVarryl Williamson on Oct.1, the fight has been added to that night's Showtime card. Though HBO will have the marquee fight of the night, Roy Jones and Antonio Tarver from the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa on pay-per-view, Showtime is making a run at stealing away a few viewers with a free tripleheader for subscribers.

The 9:15 p.m. broadcast also is scheduled to feature the return of James Toney (68-4-2, 43 KOs) against Dominick Guinn (25-2-1, 18 KOs) and IBF bantamweight champ Rafael Marquez (34-3, 30 KOs) against No.1 contender Silence Mabuza (18-0, 15 KOs).

RING NOTES: Super-middleweight Anthony Mundine (No.2 WBA, No. 3 WBO) is training with Jones in Pensacola to help prepare him for Tarver. ... Junior middleweight Kassim Ouma , coming off his shocking loss to Roman Karmazin in July, is scheduled to meet Freddie Cuevas on Oct.13 at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. ... Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini , Jeff Chandler and Alfonso Zamora are the 2006 inductees into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. Trainer and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas and female judge Gwen Adair will also be enshrined.

[Last modified September 6, 2005, 03:15:21]