Whose Win Can Benefit Us: Jones Jr. or Lacy?

Both are ready to go. Roy Jones is ready to go, looking great at 174 pounds. Lacy, just as trim and fresh at 172 pounds, is also excited about the upcoming bout. It seems like this will be anything but a boring fight. But before getting to answer my own question, there are a few things to consider and ask ourselves.

 We have all heard that sometimes, one loss can end a career. It can create a mental disturbance, a false feeling of failure. A feeling, which prevents a fighter from taking the right path to the top again, instead diverting it, and creating more sharp turns and plateaus. But the question is, who would likely suffer more from a devastating loss: A long time veteran champion or a young guy on the very last step of the ladder before getting to the top?

 Roy Jones seemed to have lost his fire, his drive, after Antonio Tarver knocked him out in the second round in 2004. Since then, Glen Johnson, Tarver (for the second time) and Joe Calzaghe have added losses to Jones’s career. He had no impressive victories over formidable opponents since then.

 Jeff Lacy, suffered similar fate by a mutual enemy, Joe Calzaghe. Even though it wasn’t a knockout, still the dominant performance by Joe over Jeff left a very deep scar in Jeff’s performance thereafter. Lacy has not looked impressive since then.

 As far as my predictions go, ill be bold and straight forward: Lacy by a knockout. Jones may “want” the win, but as the fightnews.com video showed, he himself admitted that he doesn’t “need” the win. When I head this from Jones, I knew it was over for him. The “need” is what keeps the fighter on his edge. The “need” is what drives a fighter to a literal limit of their abilities. And it’s the “need” that forces fighters to get up after being floored in a fight. Lacy has the “need”. The “need” wins over the “want” in most cases, and this time will not likely be an exception.

 To answer the questions that inspired this writing, who we should want to win, my answer is Jeff Lacy. Even if Jones wins this fight, he offers the boxing public very little. He is now considered old for boxing, and he is starting to look that way in the ring as well. He is fighting for the money, which is going to leave us boxing fans with long breaks, and little action. Lacy is young, hungry and exciting. If Jeff can win this fight, I think the confidence boost will give him the inspiration to move up fast and make big fights happen.

Thank you for reading.

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