Michael Grant steps up

-Not sure if Grant was scared or not. Pretty bold claim that you would be hard pressed to prove. There are certainly cases of fighters being visibily horrified....Spinks/Tyson, Brock/Wlad.... but this was not the case. Grant came out aggressive because that is what he promised to do.

-Nothing is insignificant. It is worth noting because its an excellent example of Lewis being took out of his comfort zone..no matter how brief and making adjustments on the fly.

-Grant was a very good contender from the late 90s class, ahead of Rahman at the time and on par with Tua in terms of achievement. He survived the onslaught of a game Golota, blew out Izon easier than Tua, and gave than promising prospects Obed Sullivan and Corey Sanders their first stoppage losses.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE8qQJEtIcE[/ame]

The Lewis and McCline fights ruined him. But in retrospect, he was much better than given credit for. I'm not trying to blow up Adamek's win over him tough, it is what it is. A busy fight against a former contender who was more game than anticipated.

 

Grant, could have let his hands go much more than he did, but he wasn't a BUM in there either. Grant, did bust up Ademak in the fight and had him hurt on a few occasions. It was not an easy night for Adamek. Grant can still make some noise if he uses he's size, jab and more active. The fight was closer than the scorecards had t.

 

Good lord change the avatar.

 

Certainly the type of opponent Adamek should have been beating easily and conclusively.

 

Probably but outside of maybe the inactive 20 lb overweight "Why am I here?" Golota, Adamek doesn't really seem to have an easy time with anybody. Just the way he fights. I really don't see any reason to hit the panic button, just Adamek being Adamek.

 

No panic button, it's just evidence to suggest Haye would devastate him.

 

right....ok, it took you long enough to reveal your agenda.

I would love to see Adamek/Haye and wouldn't be comfortable picking a considerable favorite. But I really haven't seen anything to suggest that Haye is willing to fight a live top 10 fighter any time soon....or fight anyone with any kind of frequency for that matter. Chageav is the only one even on his radar but that is being put on the backburner. While the busy Adamek will probably cash out against Wlad or Vitali next year; bigger payday, bigger reward, and I expect probably easier negotiations.

 

Someone on Classic a few months back put it beautifully about the Grant of the late 90s - "Overrated at the time, underrated now."

He wasn't what HBO or people like Don Turner hyped him up to be, but he was still a good, deserved top contender.

As for Saturday's fight, no way Grant deserved to get the nod. He simply didn't throw enough, couldn't get set and react quickly enough to the mobile Adamek. Can't beat Father Time.

But I would argue for the 116-112 scorecard rather than the 118-110 one.

Agree with all this. Even if you can't be #1, there's good scratch to be made for an in-shape heavyweight fighting regularly. Regularly being the key, Grant hasn't fought more than twice in a calendar year since 2003.
I'd really like to see him get another fight in by October, early November at the latest. Doesn't have to be a great opponent, like you say, just keep active.

To pick one, how about that Quezada guy Arreola fought the other day? Not that mobile, has himself in the WBC's top twenty and if Grant can stop him that's another tick in his favour over Arreola. Failing that, could be fun against Tye Fields or Tyson Fury for a battle of the giants...perhaps Sosnowski or Timo Hoffman, there are options.

Rumour has it yes, Grant banked his money pretty well. He was never exactly the wild partygoing playboy type after all I heard that he used to (no idea if he still does) tithe a portion of his fight purses to the local church.