 Lacy and Co. Ready to go Globetrotting
By Steve Kim (February 17, 2006)
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Next Friday, Jeff Lacy and his crew will make the trip to Europe, where he will face Joe Calzaghe in a highly-anticipated super middleweight showdown on March 4th at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England.
As always, when fighters fly overseas to ply their craft, there are logistical issues to deal with - first and foremost, getting acclimated to the different time zones and environment.
"When you go to the site you only need about maybe three or four days. When we go overseas, we need twice as long. So we're going to go eight days ahead," said Lacy's trainer, Dan Birmingham.
And nobody is equipped to handle these business trips as well as Birmingham, who could be in line to win back-to-back 'Trainer of the Year' awards. In the early-to-mid 90's, as Winky Wright carved out his niche as a little-known WBO junior middleweight champion, Wright and Birmingham fought in such exotic locales as Luxembourg, France, Germany, Monaco, Argentina, England and South Africa.
You wanna talk about globetrotting, Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal have nothing on Birmingham.
"I worked in Paris for six years when I probably made 30 to 40 trips over to Europe," said Birmingham. During this stage of Wright's career, he was promoted by France's Acaries brothers.
"It takes at least five days to really feel strong," explains the respected cornerman. "So you gotta leave at least five days ahead and there are a lot of things: the food, the time you're going to fight at; you have to be acclimated to those things."
As they prepare to leave the States, Birmingham has a laundry list of things they need to take with them. At the top of the list is food.
"We're probably going to cook 80-percent of our food and probably go out for a few dinners here and there," said Birmingham. "So we'll make a list of things that we need when we get there. We're going to be staying in a suite, so we're going to need a hot-plate and all our utensils and a grocery list and stuff like that."
Lacy and his team will take a relatively short three-hour flight from Florida to New York. After a short layover, they will then embark on a seven hour trip to England. Once they touch down, they will then embark on a car ride to Manchester.
When most civilians take international flights they either A) drink like crazy since alcohol is free on the flight or B) try and get some sleep or C) a combination of A and B. Lacy doesn't have that luxury.
"I'll just drink a lot of water," says the IBF titlist, "stay hydrated, watch movies, that's basically it."
'Left Hook' will be packing his portable DVD player and his favorite flicks.
"I got so many DVDs," he says. "I got a CD case that has a bunch of them."
What Birmingham doesn't want is for Lacy to nap throughout the whole flight. "Don't try to sleep on the plane," he advises. "Be well-rested when you leave."
And once they get there, there won't be much down time.
"We get there 7:30 on Saturday morning. So we'll probably rest most of Saturday and then get up and do a run in the evening and then continue training from there," Birmingham says. Jet-lag afflicts almost everyone that travels but the trainer has a way to combat that. "When you get there, you're dead tired, for one thing. So what you do is you get there in the morning and sleep just a short nap and try to get acclimated to their time just as soon as possible."
Lacy has dipped his toe across the pond before. In August of 2002, he would stop Jason Collins in one round in Cardiff, Wales. Ironically, that was part of the undercard where Calzaghe decisioned Miguel Angel Jimenez in defense of his WBO crown. In December of 2002, at the same arena where Lacy will perform in early March, he knocked out Donnell Wiggins in eight heats.
"It's just like fighting over here," he says. To Lacy, how you approach the trip psychologically will play an instrumental role in how your body adjusts. "When you look at it differently, that's what gets you - when you look at it as being a long way away from home. To me, when I'm in the ring, it's a ring, no matter where it's at. And that's the true champion side of me that don't care, really.
"I can fight in someone else's backyard; actually, I like being the underdog. So as far as them chanting his name, it's more pressure to him."
Lacy says jet-lag will not be a problem. But what they will really be adjusting to is not local time, but their own special itinerary. To accommodate Showtime - which will be telecasting the bout live to the east coast at 9 PM (a five hour time difference) - Lacy and Calzaghe will unify their belts at around 2 in the morning. Lacy has adjusted his own training schedule to adjust to the unusual start time of his bout.
"I don't want to get on their time zone," Lacy explains. "That's why we're not going there anytime earlier. I want to still continue to train at our regular time here, the time we're going to be in the ring. He has to adjust to the 2 AM time zone."
Gary Shaw, who promotes Lacy, thinks his past experiences in Europe will serve him well against Calzaghe.
"It's old-hat; he likes to travel, he likes to go into someone else's arena and he likes to win over the fans," he said. "So for Jeff, Calzaghe in Manchester is tailor made. The walk-in, 20,000 will boo, 38 of us will cheer. And in the end, 20,038 will all be yelling for Lacy."
From a physical and strategic standpoint, Calzaghe poses some unusual challenges for Lacy. The long-reigning WBO belt-holder is an athletic, quick-fisted southpaw who can punch.
"We realized that he's a very, busy fighter - his punch output is high, and we know he's going to try to move. So our whole thing has been to match his level as far as punch output, Jeff's ability to move, agility, everything," says Darryl Hudson, Lacy's physical conditioner, who has formed a highly fruitful partnership with Birmingham. "Just to the point where my job is to make sure Jeff's in better condition than Calzaghe is going to be. I know how to come up with a gameplan to ensure that he's going to be in that kind of condition."
Since hooking up with Lacy, Hudson has focused on bringing flexibility and pliability to the strong and chiseled Lacy.
"Each camp he's gotten better and has been able to improve, to do more," says Hudson. "Because I'm always looking to improve as far as progress. From the first time I get with a guy, going to however long I'm going to be with him. I want him to come back better than what we finished off with from fight to fight."
A couple of weeks ago, Kevin Iole of the Las Vegas Review-Journal penned an article that spoke of Lacy actually having to pull himself back a bit from working too hard as he was already near his fighting weight.
For Lacy, who calls the Calzaghe fight the biggest he's ever participated in, making sure he doesn't over train is an issue.
"It's had its ups and downs about the weight but it's all taken care of, my weight is good. I wanted to gain more weight earlier in the weeks of preparation for this fight. But it's all under control now."
Birmingham, a no-nonsense disciplinarian, is pleased with the effort that Lacy has put into this training camp.
"I'm real happy," he states. "About two weeks ago he boxed ten rounds with Winky and another sparring partner and he's looking great. He's looking great already, and he said one thing to me that really stuck out, he said, 'You've known me most of my life and all my boxing career, but you've never seen me go in a fight like this, the way I'm going in this fight.'"
And no matter where he faces Calzaghe, when it's all said and done, it's still just boxing. Two men, one referee, three minute rounds, as always.
"It's still boxing," agreed Birmingham, "and it's going to be between Calzaghe and Jeff."
LACY IN FHM
For more on Jeff Lacy, log onto fhmus.com and click onto 'Lacy's Corner' for his diary series leading into his bout with Calzaghe.
FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
I've been informed that Ricky Hatton will be the in-studio guest for this week's edition of Friday Night Fights.
Now there's a guy that Brian Kenny won't call a 'paper champion'.
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E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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