I was going to cover last night's Wednesday Night Fights live, but instead opted to just sit down and watch the fights, enjoy them for what they were and not try to cast a critical eye of any sort their way, at least not until afterward.
And before I do get critical, let me say this: it was an awesome, awesome fight, and I thought you could've rightly scored it either way depending on what you prefer. Just a hell of a good power punching bonanza. (OK, I thought Mendoza won a close one.)
I'll admit again I'm not a Jeff Lacy fan. I thought he lost his last two fights, to Tsypko and Manfredo, a couple of credible fighters that shouldn't be beating a guy that was one of the most hyped American fighters of the decade prior to the Calzaghe beating. And tonight exhibited the many reasons I just don't like Lacy as a fighter, and now have lost some respect for him as a dude:
1. His defense sucks. Epi Mendoza should not have been able to hit Lacy the way he did. Lacy should have at least adjusted at some point. He just didn't. Lacy took a lot of good shots.
2. He's always been overrated and mechanical offensively. Yeah, he's got some pop, but he's not Mike Tyson or anything, you know? And that's what he was hyped as. Hype is what it is, and it's not that important, and it's not Jeff's fault. But he tends to fight as a one-punch guy a lot of the time and it's just not what he should be doing. He should've learned that long ago.
3. Lacy's kind of a punk. He acted like a punk in the eighth round, being wailed on and responding by tackling Mendoza in a really rough fashion. It was at that point that I started really just rooting for Mendoza to knock Lacy's block off.
Didn't quite happen, but the fight was fantastic stuff. In my top ten for 2008 so far, I'll say that.
The rest of the card was highlighted by knockouts, including Jose Armando Santa Cruz wrecking up Miguel Munguia with a beautiful liver shot. Danny Jacobs also won via KO, as did Carlos Velasquez.
Really fun night at the fights, and I hope you watched.