By JOHN PHILLIPS
NEW YORK (April 26, 2000 4:18 p.m. EDT http://www.sportserver.com) - The arguments offered for
picking the winner of Saturday's heavyweight title fight
basically come down to two words according to the respective
fight camps and ringsiders - experience and pressure.
There's no question that the 34-year-old Lennox Lewis, the owner of a 35-1-1 record, the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council titles and, but for a court decision, the World Boxing Association crown, has the distinct advantage in experience over challenger Michael Grant.
Lewis and his corner take great confidence from his time on the world stage, from his Olympic triumphs, his demolition of Canadian Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, his slugfest with Ray Mercer and first-round destruction of Andrew Golota to his two fights with Evander Holyfield which brought him a highly-controversial draw in the first and a unanimous decision in the second in November for the undisputed heavyweight championship.
"I've been up against European fighters, American fighters, Cuban fighters," Lewis said. "He's been up against B-class opponents, now he's up against an 'A' fighter."
It's that experience, coupled with tremendous, if often
unrealized talent, that the Lewis crowd is touting as simply too much for the 27-year-old Grant, who by his own admission is still learning his craft.
"I've never seen Lennox so determined and he's even talking about a knockout," says his trainer Emanuel Steward, who has been dreaming for years that his big heavyweight would score an impressive knockout victory in a big fight and win the hearts of boxing fans.
"I don't believe the fight will go the distance. I feel
very confident within myself," said a remarkably relaxed Lewis earlier this week.
In the Grant camp, trainer Don Turner, who worked
Holyfield's corner against Lewis, says his man has operated at only about 80 per cent of his natural talents, which at an athletic 6-7 (2.01 m) and 250 pounds (113 kg) would be "truly scary" if he were to use all of his ability.
Both fighters weigh about 250 pounds and the American is two inches (5 cm) taller than Lewis.
The key to the fight according to Grant (31-0) is that
"this guy don't like pressure at all," he said after a brief
workout in Madison Square Garden Tuesday.
"He tends to slow up in the later rounds and gets
lackadaisical. I pick up speed in the later rounds. My job is to impose my will on him and expose him," said Grant, sitting on the edge of the ring apron and wearing a Philadelphia 76ers shirt and a baseball-style cap, its bill carefully rounded beneath the words "Chicago."
"You have to jump on him, you have to make him fight, you have to make this guy fight," said Grant, who refused to
predict how he would win, but said "the 10th round has been
very good to me."
That was a reference to his 10th-round stoppage of Andrew Golota last November. Grant, carrying his hands low, had been knocked down twice in the first round and was woefully behind on
points after nine. But he knocked down Golota in the 10th and
although the inscrutable Pole did not appear to be injured and
likely would have won if he had stayed away from Grant for the
rest of the fight, he quickly got up and then quit.
At the press conference Tuesday Grant was asked to hold the
microphone up, with one reporter shouting, "yeah, keep your
hands up."
Grant smiled and raised the mike. "Ha! I learned my lesson,
man."
Grant acknowledges his relative inexperience, but counters
with "before experience I had patience. When I started out I
was not thinking about the championship. I was learning about
the sport. It's time to prevail."
Steward maintains that when the going gets tough against
Lewis, Grant does not have the experience to instinctively fall back on and will essentially panic. But Grant says "I rely on my instincts, my reactions. The key is don't focus on my
thinking" because that will slow him down.
Another important aspect of Saturday's fight, both corners
say, is for Grant to get inside on Lewis and Lewis to stay on
the outside. For a big man Grant is a good infighter, better
than Lewis, who has shown a propensity for tying up his opponent rather than fight inside.
Given that, it appeared strange in his two rounds of
sparring Tuesday that Grant's opponent was constantly working his way inside which is something Lewis is not expected to do Saturday.
That's where pressure and experience enter the fray. Grant is expected to try to pressure Lewis, forcing him to fight
inside, while Lewis will attempt to use his experience to stay on the outside.
It's test time for Michael Grant
By ED SCHUYLER JR.
NEW YORK (April 26, 2000 4:21 p.m. EDT http://www.sportserver.com) - School's just about out for Michael Grant.
"I've learned from the first fight through the 31st fight," said Grant, who got a passing grade for all 31 matches, but who almost flunked against Andrew Golota.
Fight No. 32 will be the 27-year-old Grant's final exam - a challenge to heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis on Saturday night in Madison Square Garden.
The 34-year-old Lewis is favored, and one reason has to be the 6-foot-7 Grant's narrow escape against Golota on Nov. 20. Grant was knocked down twice and hurt badly in the first round, but he rallied to knock down Golota in the 10th and win when Golota quit.
Lewis stopped Golota in the first round Oct. 4, 1996.
"I don't draw any conclusions from that," the 6-5 Lewis said.
"It wasn't the same Golota that fought me that fought Lewis," said Grant, who sparred two rounds with former opponent Corey Sanders on Tuesday in The Theater at the Garden complex.
To emphasize that comparing fights can be waste of time, Grant said, "I stopped Corey Sanders in the second round (in 1996)," while Golota had to go the full 10 rounds to beat Sanders in 1998.
Although he was stopped in the second round after being knocked down by a thunderous right to the jaw by Oliver McCall on Sept. 24,
1994, Lewis (35-1-1, 27 knockouts) also has proven himself tough in difficult situations. He was in deep trouble in the first two rounds against Shannon Briggs, but he fought back to stop Briggs in the fifth round on March 28, 1998.
"I'm expecting a very tough fight," said Emanuel Steward, Lewis' trainer. "It's the first time I've seen two guys of this size who have talent, and have dealt with adversity and shown they can weather the storm."
Grant is expected to officially weigh about 250 pounds and Lewis
is expected to weigh in the 240s Thursday. The highest combined
weight for a championship fight was the 488 3/4 when Primo Carnera
(259 1/2) scored a 15-round decision over Paolino Uzcuden (229 1/4) in
1933.
The fight will be only for the WBC and IBF titles. A federal
judge ruled Lewis breached a contract by not keeping an agreement
in signing for his rematch with Evander Holyfield. The agreement
stated that if he won, Lewis would make a mandatory defense against
the highest available WBA contender.
Lewis, who fought a controversial draw with Holyfield on March
13, 1999. retained the WBC title and won the WBA and IBF titles by
outpointing Holyfield on Nov. 20.
The WBA ranks John Ruiz and Holyfield 1-2, while Grant is ranked
No. 5. Grant is ranked second behind Ruiz by the WBC and No. 2 by
the IBF behind David Tua.
"He's No. 1 in my book," Lewis said of Grant. "He's been
active. He hasn't been sitting about waiting."
The fight will be the fourth match on a pay-per-view (TVKO) show
that begins at 9 p.m. EDT. The main event is expected to start
around 11:15 p.m., and it will be preceded by a an IBF
featherweight title defense by Paul Ingle (22-1, 15 knockouts) of
Britain against Junior Jones (47-4, 27 knockouts), a former WBA
bantamweight champion from Brooklyn, N.Y.
