BoxRec

Tuan_Jim wrote:

thepocketrocket wrote:Anyone who watched the Golota fight would have seen that Grant was basically a good athlete but not a real talented boxer. Therefore by the time 'The Land of The Giants' PPV came against Lewis, a destruction was expected.

No amount of revisionism to boost Lewis' legacy will change that.

There was a huge body of opinion that had Michael Grant the winner. It's not a revisionist history, it's simply fact. Lewis's legacy is good enough without anyone needing to boost the Grant win.

I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

Autobarn wrote:With him being a good athlete he might've done well if he was born in this era.

Because most heavyweights have really declined in their conditioning.

And he beat plenty of guys who could hit before his title shot. Butler, Golota, Anis, Gonzalez, Savarese etc. Tried to fight Briggs. I wonder what Grant makes of Joshua knocking over a string of cans, three of which were in "world" title fights, and now in a position to "prove" himself against a 41 year old man.

The mind boggles.

mickey1975 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:

thepocketrocket wrote:Anyone who watched the Golota fight would have seen that Grant was basically a good athlete but not a real talented boxer. Therefore by the time 'The Land of The Giants' PPV came against Lewis, a destruction was expected.

No amount of revisionism to boost Lewis' legacy will change that.

There was a huge body of opinion that had Michael Grant the winner. It's not a revisionist history, it's simply fact. Lewis's legacy is good enough without anyone needing to boost the Grant win.

I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

Or Michael himself?

mickey1975 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:

thepocketrocket wrote:Anyone who watched the Golota fight would have seen that Grant was basically a good athlete but not a real talented boxer. Therefore by the time 'The Land of The Giants' PPV came against Lewis, a destruction was expected.

No amount of revisionism to boost Lewis' legacy will change that.

There was a huge body of opinion that had Michael Grant the winner. It's not a revisionist history, it's simply fact. Lewis's legacy is good enough without anyone needing to boost the Grant win.

I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

No, I'm not American. And I don't think you not being able to remember something proves or disproves it.

Ron Borges was one who picked Grant to outlast Lewis and KO him. He was the lone journalist to pick Holyfield over Tyson in 96, and again the lone journalist to pick Lewis over Golota by 1st rd KO. I can't be bothered doing research for others but there was a lot of this in the air.

Tuan_Jim wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:
There was a huge body of opinion that had Michael Grant the winner. It's not a revisionist history, it's simply fact. Lewis's legacy is good enough without anyone needing to boost the Grant win.

I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

No, I'm not American. And I don't think you not being able to remember something proves or disproves it.

Ron Borges was one who picked Grant to outlast Lewis and KO him. He was the lone journalist to pick Holyfield over Tyson in 96, and again the lone journalist to pick Lewis over Golota by 1st rd KO. I can't be bothered doing research for others but there was a lot of this in the air.

I will take your word on Borges, but saying the guy who was the only guy to pick Holy, and the only guy to pick Lewis KO1 as somewhat symptomatic of a feeling Grant was a monster isn't really working.

What was true is that before pre Golota there was a lot of hype. The fact he got beaten up by Golota before Golota had one of his breakdowns really ruined the hype-train. No amount of watching Grant swim as part of training camp was going to change that.

It was a great night though....Clinton Woods had a great win over Ole Klementsen, and Paul Ingle did Junior Jones!

Tuan_Jim wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:
There was a huge body of opinion that had Michael Grant the winner. It's not a revisionist history, it's simply fact. Lewis's legacy is good enough without anyone needing to boost the Grant win.

I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

No, I'm not American. And I don't think you not being able to remember something proves or disproves it.

Ron Borges was one who picked Grant to outlast Lewis and KO him. He was the lone journalist to pick Holyfield over Tyson in 96, and again the lone journalist to pick Lewis over Golota by 1st rd KO. I can't be bothered doing research for others but there was a lot of this in the air.

I'm well aware who Borges is, and his Douglas pick.... Unfortunately, he's gone down in my book for tipping Grant.

The only thing I remember about the Grant v Lewis build up was people wondering if Grant would say 'God Bless' when they touched gloves before the first bell.

thepocketrocket wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:

mickey1975 wrote: I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

No, I'm not American. And I don't think you not being able to remember something proves or disproves it.

Ron Borges was one who picked Grant to outlast Lewis and KO him. He was the lone journalist to pick Holyfield over Tyson in 96, and again the lone journalist to pick Lewis over Golota by 1st rd KO. I can't be bothered doing research for others but there was a lot of this in the air.

I will take your word on Borges, but saying the guy who was the only guy to pick Holy, and the only guy to pick Lewis KO1 as somewhat symptomatic of a feeling Grant was a monster isn't really working.

What was true is that before pre Golota there was a lot of hype. The fact he got beaten up by Golota before Golota had one of his breakdowns really ruined the hype-train. No amount of watching Grant swim as part of training camp was going to change that.

Golota definitely did damage to Grant's reputation, and Lewis watching at ringside obviously pencilled him in as his next opponent at that moment, but the talk pre-fight was that Grant had proven he had the intangibles by getting up to win (etc etc). Lewis was favourite I believe, but not many people thought he would have an easy time with a fellow giant after 24 unimpressive rounds versus creaking old Holyfield. A lot of the Americans seemed to think Grant would overcome Lewis.

mickey1975 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:

mickey1975 wrote: I can't remember many tipping him at all. Are you American?

No, I'm not American. And I don't think you not being able to remember something proves or disproves it.

Ron Borges was one who picked Grant to outlast Lewis and KO him. He was the lone journalist to pick Holyfield over Tyson in 96, and again the lone journalist to pick Lewis over Golota by 1st rd KO. I can't be bothered doing research for others but there was a lot of this in the air.

I'm well aware who Borges is, and his Douglas pick.... Unfortunately, he's gone down in my book for tipping Grant.

If you look around you'll see a lot of yanks were picking him - I don't think many people expected Lewis to have an easy night.

Just watched the Zimnoch fight: he literally is just a walking punch bag.

Why would he put himself through that?

He surely must only be getting chump change.

He'd probably earn more money as a minder or a nightclub bouncer.

Crease wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:It's easy to forget how huge the buzz about Michael Grant was. He was seen at the time as the future of heavyweight boxing, the uncrowned king, the embodiment of the media's image of the futuristic, perfectly-sculpted superheavyweight.

No doubt that he once did look the part:

He still looks the same.

He doesn't look to have aged at all if you look at the video for his latest fight!

Syntax Error wrote:

Crease wrote:

He still looks the same.
He doesn't look to have aged at all if you look at the video for his latest fight!

Really? He's an old boy now, what age is he, 45 or something? He must have been keeping himself in some shape throughout the years.

Woah that really takes you back. 17 years!!! Scary.

Grant was seen as a genuine threat at the time (along with David Tua). That old tosser Larry Marchant, who was never a fan of Lewis, went on record as saying the 2 best heavyweights at that time were Tua and Grant, but Lewis smashed Grant and stood Tua on his head.

But Grant had earned his shot and was a determined guy. I actually had my photo take with Emmanuel Steward a day o2 before the fight and I asked him how confident he was and he was dead serious when he said Lewis should win, but you never know....

Crease wrote:

Syntax Error wrote:

Crease wrote:

He still looks the same.
He doesn't look to have aged at all if you look at the video for his latest fight!

Really? He's an old boy now, what age is he, 45 or something? He must have been keeping himself in some shape throughout the years.

Yes.

He looks to be in decent physical shape & facially, he looks virtually unchanged to what he was in the late 90s/early 00s.