You are correct. Michael Grant was never the third best heavyweight on the planet. He certainly was not at that moment in time. It was a laughably poor rating gifted to him by Ring magazine (which was wildly influenced by HBO at that point). Akinwande was always given short shrift by Ring. The year the undefeated Akinwande defended his WBO Heavyweight title against Zolkin, and beat Zolkin into retirement that night, Ring had the WBO challenger Zolkin rated ahead of him. When the undefeated Akinwande wanted to unify the WBO and WBC belts with Lewis, but the WBC wouldn't recognize the WBO, so Akinwande vacated and became the WBC #1 contender and fought Lewis, Ring had the undefeated Akinwande rated below Ray Mercer, who had only won one fight in the previous three years and should've lost to Marion Wilson. And Ring essentially never rated Akinwande again after the Lewis fight even though Henry went the next 10 years with only one loss (in the last round against McCall) and was even scheduled to fight Holyfield for two (WBA and IBF) of the titles in 1998 until the fight was cancelled because he had hepatitits. The Ring's recognition of Akinwande was not only pitiful but disgraceful for a champ who won the WBO belt, made several successful defenses and who only lost to two world champs (Lewis and McCall) in his first 17 years and 53 pro fights.
I have no idea how someone could say Grant was more proven. More proven to do what? Not win a world title. Not defend a title. Not stay on his feet. Not win decisions. Not show a better chin. Not display more boxing skills. Not show better endurance. Not travel around the world and win in different countries with hometown judges who could easily score against you.
Um yeah no. Golota beated himself against Grant when he quit while ahead on the cards.. Unike Grant , Henry dominated Zolkin in a very impressive manner. Its as clear as day that Henry is far more skilled than Grant the basketball player. Moury Harris had more boxing skill than Grant. Henry wins this fight because he is the better boxer and has looked better than Grant in his winning performances. There's not much more to it that that
Akinwade won the WBO Heavyweight Title by knocking out Jeremy Williams and he made two successful defenses against Scott Welch and Alexander Zolkin before he vacated that belt, became the WBC #1 contender and challenged fellow champ Lennox Lewis, who he dropped before being DQed. If Michael Grant had to fly all over the world for his major fights, knocked out Jeremy Williams, won a WBO belt and made two successful defenses in Europe against Scott Welch and Alexander Zolkin ... and managed to drop Lennox Lewis before losing ... and also went to Germany and beat Axel Shulz, and beat former champs like Tony Tucker and Orlin Norris ... he'd be "former world champ Michael Grant" and on the list for Canastota right now. And if Akinwande's claim to fame was a win over David Izon and humiliating stoppage losses to Jameel McCline and Dominick Guinn ... nobody would've even started a thread like this. You're perpetuating the garbage Akinwande dealt with. He's wildly underrated. Wildly underrated. Akinwande won big fights on the road all the time. The last time he fought in England was when he knocked out Stanley Wright a couple months before Grant knocked out Stanley Wright. The next 12 years were all fought on the road. And he still dominated. Grant couldn't beat Dominick Guinn. Under normal circumstances, that point would've ended this thread in post #2.
Don’t you think it’s weird how Jeremy Williams wasn’t a champion and WBO wasn’t recognized back then? I also don’t remember Akinwande dropping Lewis. I remember him being DQ’d and scared to fight. I still don’t know who Scott Welch is. Probably the grape juice guy.
Don't you think it's weird that the day a WBO champ drops the belt he becomes the WBC #1 contender? And don't you think it's weird Grant couldn't even win one of those? Don't you think it's weird Grant couldn't even beat Dominick Guinn? Do you think if Dominick Guinn was the WBO champ that would make Grant's multiple knockdown, humiliating loss easier to go down? LOL Why do I get the impression if Michael Grant fought Jeremy Williams ... given how many times both went down, it's a tossup as to who even wins that?
Akinwande was with Don King. Do you know what that meant for rankings back then? It meant Ruiz was ranked ahead of Tua. Grant was done when he fought Guinn. Boxing is a rough game.
Seriously? His fights with Oyebola were great. Long story short, Scott Welch was the UK's version of Tommy Morrison, except Welch had a better chin. But he retired to become a movie star (and it worked out about as well as it did for Morrison). But instead of starring Rocky V and losing to the 60-year old midget Sylvester Stallone he appeared in Snatch and had to lose to the 30-year old midget Brad Pitt ... after launching Brad Pitt into unconsciousness. This content is protected Let's put it this way, in 1997, when Akinwande beat him, I'd have taken Scott Welch over Morrison. I was trading VHS tapes with a guy from England at the time and was a big fan of Welch. Always a fun watch. Too bad his career was so short. Actually, this is a good interview with Welch a few months back. About 59 minutes in, he talks about the night he fought in Vegas on the undercard to when Zolkin challenged Akinwande for the WBO title, Botha challenged Moorer for the IBF belt, and Holyfield challenged Tyson for the WBA belt. Welch says in here that the Klitschkos changed their style and copied Akinwande, which I agree with. This content is protected
WBO champs that dropped their belts immediately got high ratings by other orgs. It had nothing to do with King. It happened with Mercer. It happened with Moorer. It happened with Akinwande. It happened with Corrie Sanders. Over and over. The fact that the other sanctioning bodies conspired against the WBO and tried to force fighters not to compete for that belt is well documented and the topic of other threads. It had no bearing on how good the WBO Champs were, if that's what you are trying to insinuate. Hamed was the WBO champ and proceeded to fight each champ from the other orgs and beat them all and then drop those belts and keep the WBO belt. Riddick Bowe was rated the #1 heavyweight at the end of 1995 the year he was WBO champ and then dropped the belt because Holyfield didn't want to hurt his standings with the other orgs fighting for it when they faced off a third time.
I’d rather be knocked out than have a fight stopped because I was scared. Akinwande was petrified against Lewis, terrible terrible fight
Watch his other 54 pro fights with 50 wins. Judging Akinwande solely on the Lewis fight is like judging Tyson solely on his DQ loss to Holyfield. People have their blinders on.
Probably Akindwande. Grant was a mental mess after Atlas ruined him. He was overated from the start. Just a big atheletic guy.