By Glenn Wilson (photo by Richie Maldonado)

When the bell sounds for round one of the Joe Calzaghe-Jeff Lacy fight on March 4, the super middleweight division will finally get the chance to shine and show the world that they are a division that is ready to be considered among the best in boxing.

Joe Calzaghe, of Wales, and Jeff Lacy, of St. Petersburg, Fla., will decide who reigns supreme among the super middleweights. Calzaghe, rated #1 by Ring Magazine, has been the standard bearer the last few years but it has quickly become Lacy, rated #3 by Ring, who has been making waves with his Tysonesque approach towards fighting. Calzaghe, 40-0 31 KO's, and Lacy, 21-0 17 KO's, have been linked together for the past year as talk of a fight between the two started to materialize. Joe has been trying to prove his place in boxing's hierarchy by beating the best available opponents while Jeff has continuously called out the Welshman.

The division has needed an injection of excitement to bring it to the forefront of boxing. It has struggled to find an audience due in part to alphabet titleholders like Sven Ottke, who refused to venture outside of his homeland to defend his belt.

While the super middleweights have some quality boxers, not all are household names even to the diehard boxing fan. Fighters such as Mikkel Kessler, Markus Beyer and Anthony Mundine are good but more commonly known overseas.

Enter Calzaghe, who has fought some good fighters during his reign but could not get Ottke to fight him. Joe is better known in the U.S. due to his affiliation with Showtime but has not been able to get that one career defining fight.

Now Lacy appears ready to step up and challenge the taller Calzaghe. Jeff, nicknamed "Left Hook", has developed a complete offensive package that makes his "Left Hook" moniker somewhat of a misnomer. Power in both hands and a better than average body attack make Lacy a very dangerous opponent.

Lacy was able to dispose of Scott Pemberton with an overhand right in November and thoroughly break down solid veteran Robin Reid in August. The 5'9" Lacy is use to fighting taller men and usually is able to will his way inside, this will be a must when he fights Calzaghe.

Give credit to promoter Gary Shaw and trainer Dan Birmingham for not holding Jeff back from fighting tough opponents. With wins over Sheika, Reid, Pemberton and Vanderpool, Shaw and Birmingham have allowed Jeff to progress at his own rate. Unfortunely for his opponents and possibly for Calzaghe, he has developed and matured quite rapidly.

Calzaghe has been clipped in recent fights but has shown a propensity to recover quickly. This could serve him well if and when he tastes Lacy's power. Calzaghe would probably be best advised to try and use his height to maintain some distance between himself and Lacy, the bad news for Joe is that he actually is giving away an inch in reach.

Promoter Frank Warren and trainer Enzo Calzaghe have tried to get big fights for their fighter but were usually turned down by boxers not willing to travel to the United Kingdom. Still Joe has an impressive resume with wins over Byron Mitchell, Charles Brewer, Omar Sheika, Robin Reid and Chris Eubank.

Calzaghe has been the distance in two of his last three fights, both of which he won against Kabary(W12) and Ashira(W12). He sandwiched a TKO win over Mario Veit in between. While all these fights kept Calzaghe busy, none were against anyone who could seriously challenge him.

The explosiveness and question marks make this matchup a fight fan's dream. Lacy has scored thirteen of his 17 knockouts in three rounds or less. Calzaghe has knocked out twenty-six of his opponents in five rounds or less. Lacy has not faced a fighter of Joe Calzaghe's caliber and it is doubtful that Joe has been in the ring with a puncher as devastating as Jeff Lacy is. Will Lacy blow out Joe in three or less or will Calzaghe take the less experienced Jeff into the deep waters of the later rounds.

Put all these ingrediants together and you have the makings of a fight of the year candidate and of a fight that could put the super middleweight division right back in the spotlight for years to come.