BOXING: LACY-CALZAGHE A SUPER BOUT.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES Boxing

You'd have to go back nearly 12 years to find a super middleweight fight as high-profile as the one coming up Saturday between Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe in Manchester, England.

That was when Roy Jones Jr. moved up in weight and took the International Boxing Federation belt from James ``Lights Out'' Toney via lopsided decision in November 1994. Unfortunately, the bout didn't live up to its hype. Toney had trouble making weight, was physically drained because of that and his lethargy made for a boring 12 rounds.

That doesn't figure to happen in Saturday's title unification fight when Lacy will put his IBF belt on the line and Calzaghe will do likewise with his World Boxing Organization belt, of which he has made 17 defenses since winning the title in 1997.

Showtime will televise at 9 p.m.

``Yeah, it's a big fight,'' said Calzaghe, of Hammersmith, England. ``It's the biggest fight in a long time. I know Jeff is going to be possibly the toughest fight of my career. Like I have shown in the past, I have always risen to the occasion.

``It is an exciting fight. It is great for the division and great for boxing.''

Calzaghe, a 5-foot-11 1/2-inch southpaw, is a fine mixture of power and speed. In his 17 title defenses, 10 have come by knockout. But as Calzaghe himself attests, Lacy is probably going to be a tougher nut to crack than any of those in his previous defenses.

Lacy is just 5-9, but he is a tremendous physical specimen. He consistently fights very hard and is not easily discouraged. He's one of those fighters people want to watch perform. Lacy, of St. Petersburg, Fla., has made four defenses of his belt.

``He dominated the weight class since 1997, and I do give him credit,'' Lacy said of Calzaghe, ``but I was not here before. When I enter the ring, I am coming in there to fight, and that is what this fight is all about.

``It's going to be a fight where everybody is going to get their money's worth.''

--Looking for a defense: Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico has established himself as one of today's better offensive fighters. However, Cotto also has shown a lack of defense that has caused him to be rocked in several of his past five fights.

Cotto, 25-0 with 21 knockouts, won all five of those fights by knockout. To him, that's all that counts.

``When I go out there, I go out there to do my job, do the best I can,'' said Cotto, who Saturday will try to make the fifth successful defense of his WBO junior welterweight belt when he takes on Gianluca Branco in Puerto Rico. ``You go out there, you know you are going to get hit.

``Obviously, I've been hit a few times the last couple of fights, but I come right back and I show them what I can do when I'm hurt and I think that's also just as well, being able not only to land some shots, but I've proven I can take shots.''

Branco, of Italy, at 35 is 10 years older than Cotto. But he is 36-1-1 with 19 knockouts. He has won his past four fights by knockout, but they all took place in Italy against fighters not known in these parts.

HBO will televise the card at 7 p.m. It will also show a replay of last Saturday's junior middleweight fight between Fernando Vargas and ``Sugar'' Shane Mosley won by Mosley via 10th-round technical knockout.

--Taking his lump: The huge lump that covered Vargas' left eye and part of the side of his head after Saturday's fight reminded some ringside reporters of the even bigger lump that protruded from the head of Hasim Rahman in a heavyweight fight with Evander Holyfield in June 2002.

Rahman, who will defend his World Boxing Council belt against the aforementioned Toney on March 18 in Atlantic City, lost an eight-round technical decision to Holyfield, whose head-butt caused the damage and rendered Rahman unable to continue. The fight went to the scorecards and Holyfield won on two of the three.

Vargas, immediately after he was stopped Saturday, said he would sit down with his family and discuss whether he would continue his career. But about 30 minutes later in the post-fight news conference, he shouted, ``I want a rematch. Shane knows I was on him. I was winning that fight.''

Vargas was behind on two of the three scorecards by a point and ahead on the third by a point.

It won't be easy to make the rematch, however. Mosley said afterward Saturday's fight was his last at junior middleweight. He said he would be moving back down to welterweight, a weight Vargas can't make.

Vargas made $4 million Saturday, Mosley $3 million.

--Corrales-Castillo III is on: The third fight between Diego ``Chico'' Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo was supposed to take place Feb. 4 in El Paso, Texas, but Corrales had to pull out with a rib injury.

The fight has been re-scheduled for June 3 and it will take place at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, site of their second fight. Each has a knockout victory over the other, and more hard-hitting action figures to be on tap for the rubber match.

Gary Shaw, who promotes Corrales, can't wait.

``I fully expect this fight to be a rerun of the original in both action and result,'' said Shaw, speaking of Corrales' 10th-round TKO of Castillo in their first fight last May at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. ``This will not just be Chico's coronation, but Castillo's retirement.''

Corrales' WBO and WBC lightweight titles will be on the line, but only if Castillo can make the 135-pound weight limit. He was unable to do that in their second fight last October at Thomas & Mack, so even though Castillo won via fourth-round knockout, Corrales retained his belts because they had been taken off the table.

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