Eric Lucas– Danny Green

Montreal native, Eric Lucas, and Australian, Danny Green, squared off at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday, Dec. 20/03, for the WBC interim super-middleweight Championship of the World. Around 13,000 rowdy fans were on hand to see the event and unfortunately most of them went home disappointed as local favourite Lucas lost by TKO in the sixth round. “I have no excuses,” admitted a dejected-looking Lucas at the post-fight press conference. “I was in shape and prepared for the fight but unfortunately got caught with a good punch and couldn’t recover.” It was actually more than just one punch as Green’s right hand landed with ever-increasing regularity as the fight wore on. “I could see I was hurting him with right hands,” explained Green. “I could feel him wobble as I hit him and knew if I could keep it up, it was just a matter of time.” Although sensing the final outcome, Green admitted that he was surprised that the end came so early as he had prepared himself for a much longer fight.

ANALYSIS

From ringside, the main difference in this contest came down to hand speed and execution. Lucas seemed prepared and started well, but just couldn’t deal with his opponent’s quickness and had no tactical answer for Green’s aggression. Lucas used his well-known defensive style that has served him well for most of his career, but in this case his opponent’s right hand managed to slip through the guard. Lucas would lean away onto his back foot to escape Green’s right, using this movement as a pivot point for counter-shots. The problem was that Lucas kept his left too low and didn’t use his right as an effective cross-block and, with an opponent as fast as Green, simply couldn’t fade away in time or slip his powerful punches. The result, unfortunately, gave Green’s right hand a clear path to Lucas’s left temple. “I knew he has a great chin,” admitted Green. “So I purposely targeted the temple area where the skull is thinner and used my fast hands to land clean shots.” Lucas himself also admitted in the post-fight press conference that he was surprised by Green’s quickness and didn’t think that he was so fast.

Despite some obvious shortcomings Lucas’s performance wasn’t all bad. The crowd favourite controlled the early action, landing some nice counters in the first round as well as some stiff jabs and straight lefts throughout the fight. He showed the true grit and toughness that has become synonymous with his name and definitely did not quit prematurely after taking a knee in the 6th round. Lucas was badly hurt, and for his own safety the fight should have been stopped. Chief second Stephane Larouche, who threw in the towel on Lucas’s request, had no regrets about this fateful decision during the post-fight press conference. “I’ve known Eric a long time,” he said. “And I know he would never quit unless it was absolutely necessary, so when he gave me the signal to stop, I didn’t hesitate.” Larouche also adds that during the eight-count he could see that Lucas’s legs were gone and Green, looking very fresh in the neutral corner, was ready to move in for the kill. Decisions such as these are very tough to make in the heat of the moment but that’s what good, professional corner men are supposed to do – Look out for the safety of their fighters and make sure they go home on their feet.

WHAT’S NEXT

Lucas, now age 32, and coming off of 2 consecutive losses, must make some difficult decisions about his future in the sport. Green on the other hand, appears to have a much brighter future and with 17 knockout wins in his first 18 bouts may be one of the rising stars in the division. Yvon Michel, manager of Interbox stated during the post-fight press conference that Lucas had signed a reciprocal agreement with Green granting a rematch should the Australian become champion in the future. At first glance a rematch may seem pointless for Lucas, in light of such a disappointing performance, but let us not forget that Lucas has faced a similar situation, a few years ago, before his rematch against Glenn Catley. After being TKO’d in the twelfth round of their first fight, Lucas was not expected to win the rematch against an opponent considered, by many observers, to be simply too talented. This, however, did not stop the determined young man from St. Julie as Lucas and his trainers obviously worked very hard, studied a lot of tape and, during a tough training camp, made some critical adjustments to their fighter’s style. The rematch was definitely one of the high points of Lucas’s career, as he not only beat Catley, he outclassed and destroyed him. Controlling the action from the outset and landing devastating right hand counters, Lucas boxed his way to a relatively easy sixth round KO and, to the surprise of many, was suddenly back on top. Now of course that was a few years ago, and Danny Green is faster and definitely more dangerous than Glenn Catley ever was, but the fact remains that Lucas has beaten the odds before and this boxing over-achiever may just do it again.