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Extra Muscle Made Lacy Feel Sluggish

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 14, 2007

TAMPA - Jeff Lacy was a model patient.

His physical therapist, Chris Arrigo, said as much a little more than a week before Lacy's unanimous-decision victory against Peter Manfredo Jr. Dec. 8 in Las Vegas.

He may have been too diligent.

Lacy's surgically repaired left shoulder held up during the 10-round bout, but the additional muscle mass made the St. Petersburg super middleweight feel sluggish in his first bout since Dec. 2, 2006.

"Taking the weight off, I felt great," Lacy said. "But in the fight there was a lot of muscle that I was still carrying. My muscles were big instead of being flexible, so that's what you saw in the fight.

"As the fight went long, I had no body fat, so it really tired me out to the point that when I was throwing punches, everything felt heavy."

Although that was the case, Lacy, who said he is his own worst critic, was satisfied with his victory.

That muscle may have helped in the fourth round of that bout when Lacy (23-1, 17 KOs) caught Manfredo (28-5, 13 KOs) with a right, knocking him into the ropes and to the canvass.

So who's next? Lacy pointed out Columbian super middleweight Edison Miranda (29-2, 25 KOs)

"There's a lot of options in the super middleweight division," Lacy said. "Maybe we can fight a couple guys from The Contender. There's all kinds of things out there, but I want to bring the next one here to Tampa Bay."

How about the long talked about showdown with Antonio Tarver?

TAMPA VS. ST. PETE?: For some time, there has been talk about Lacy and Tarver getting in the ring. A deal appeared to be close in 2006, but fell through due to money issues. Now the talk has simmered up again.

Tarver, of Tampa, says he's game, as does Lacy, but there's a catch. Tarver's fight Dec. 1 against Danny Santiago, which Tarver won by a fourth-round knockout, was co-promoted by Tarver's AT Entertainment and by Gary Shaw, Lacy's former promoter. Lacy ended his relationship with Shaw following his March 2006 loss to Joe Calzaghe and says if Shaw has anything to do with Tarver, he won't sign anything.

Tarver said he doesn't have a deal with Shaw, instead, he can to hire any promoter to assist his company. He also said he has the Forum booked for April 12 with an undercard pitting WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (25-0, 17 KOs) against Glenn Johnson (46-11-2, 31 KOs), of which he'll take on the winner in the summer.

As for his opponent in April, he'd love it to be Lacy.

MMA NEWS: Tampa's Matt Arroyo, a contestant in the recent season of the Ultimate Fighter and WEC WrekCage middleweight champion Paulo Filho will be at The Fighter Warehouse grand opening signing autographs Saturday at 11 a.m. The Fighter Warehouse, which sells MMA equipment, is located at 3943 W. Kennedy Blvd in Tampa.

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 948-4214 or edaniels@tampatrib.com.

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