In Boxing News: Lacy-Calzaghe, Baby Joe Spars, Page Improves

In Boxing News: Things heating up for Lacy-Calzaghe

Things are heating up both here and overseas in anticipation of Saturday’s big super-middleweight bout at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England between Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe. Robert Morales of the LA Daily News gives us the lowdown on Saturday’s big Showtime bout, while giving a nod to the less significant, but no less potentially explosive, fight between Miguel Cotto and Gianluca Branco being broadcast at the same time on HBO.

Great Britain’s The Sun, as evenhanded as ever, quotes Jeff Lacy about his Welsh opponent: Refs think he is all over opponents with punches but that is not the case. When he is going in for the kill, he is slapping shots to make it look like he is busy. He is not knocking people out, referees are stopping contests. If he tries that kind of trick with me he will not succeed. He is going to have to put force behind his punches to get me to respect him Baby Joe Mesi is back in the news with a vengeance. His ostensible mission to find a place willing to license him to fight  finally complete, the Buffalo Bruiser has made his way from the winter chill of the northeast to the sunny climes of Puerto Rico to begin training for his April Fool’s Day fight. As the two-fisted TSS columnist Michael Woods reports in Baby Joe Spars in Puerto Rico, when Mesi was asked if he might be a little bit gun shy when that first overhand right comes his way, Baby Joe replied, “No. None. I have no worries about taking punches. I’ve done the research. I’ve talked to experts. I have no doubts.” We may have doubts, but we don’t doubt for a second that Joe Mesi speaks the truth Word from Louisville via USA Today is that Greg Page, although he remains in critical condition in the Jewish Hospital’s intensive care unit, has turned a corner. A hospital spokeswoman said doctors were slowly taking the 47-year-old Page off a ventilator so he could start trying to breathe on his own. His wife Patricia said her husband is alert and responsive. “I am encouraged by the progress he is making.” So are we. Once a fighter, always a fighter. And last but not least, former top-ten heavyweight Tommy Morrison is wanted in South Dakota. He was arrested last fall at the Sioux Falls airport in possession of rolling papers, a pipe and syringes. The onetime contender alleges they were for medical use.

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