by George Kimball
SCOTRUN, Pa. - Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant are already guaranteed to set a record for combined tonnage in a heavyweight championship fight when they meet at Madison Square Garden later this month. Mathematicians have calculated that the combined April 29 combatants will exceed 13 feet in height and will weigh well in excess of 500 pounds.
Being cast as the smaller and quicker fighter is a new experience for the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Lewis.
``His speed is gonna kill Michael Grant,'' said Lewis' sparring partner Jameel McCline as he toweled off beside the ring a couple of days ago. McCline had just gone four brisk rounds with the heavyweight champion, and was counting himself fortunate.
``Today he just wanted to work,'' said McCline. ``If I'd pulled some of the things I did today last week, he would have knocked me out.''
McCline spent two stretches in 1996 working as Grant's sparring partner, and knows, he says, whereof he speaks.
``Grant's weaknesses? Hmm,'' Lewis paused to think. ``I really think his biggest weakness is inexperience. He just hasn't been what I've been through.''
What Lewis has been through in the past year, of course, consisted of 24 rounds of boxing against Evander Holyfield, from which he emerged with the undisputed heavyweight title - a distinction that is not, according to his own attorneys, likely to last beyond the end of this week.
Lewis' lawyers have already braced their client for that eventuality, and although he is describing himself as ``The Undisputed,'' he knows it is nearly a foregone conclusion that one of his three belts is about to disappear, and that five weeks after he fights Grant, Holyfield and Chelsea's John Ruiz are going to be battling for the WBA title.
``Politics. Poli-tricks,'' Lewis said with a sigh. ``They can't beat me in the ring, so the only way they can even try to beat me is outside the ring. It's just another Don King-trickified way of trying to hold on to a piece of the title.
``If me and Evander Holyfield fought 10 fights, I'd beat him 10 times,'' insisted Lewis. ``I know Evander's been writing letters about obeying the rules, but that letter's really just hypocritical, because he's saying one thing and doing another.
``Even when you're undisputed, you can only fight one person at a time, but you've got three separate bodies after you. You've got David Tua trying to put an injunction on the fight because he believes he should be the next one, you've got Ruiz on the other side wanting to fight me, and you've got Evander Holyfield on the outside, looking in there and trying to get in. In that sense you have to deal with more things, but I'm basically the same person I've always been. I just have more belts to keep my pants up.''
Will Lewis still consider himself ``The Undisputed'' if the court vacates one-third of his title this week?
``Yeah. You know, I believe if you're going to lose a belt, you have to lose it in the ring. If this is how it goes and this is God's plan, then so be it,'' he said.
But ask Lewis why he is fighting Grant in the midst of all this turmoil and the answer is simple.
``Right now,'' he said, ``Grant is the biggest and strongest available Mike. He's the best of the new crop of young heavyweights coming up - and he's basically boxed more reputable opponents. I mean you look at (Tua and Ruiz) and who have they fought? They're basically just sitting around, waiting, going to court, trying to get me in the ring in that sense. But Grant kept his hand in. He boxed (Lou) Savarese, he boxed Golota. He was willing to take chances out there.
``I think this is a great fight for me. I didn't want to waste my time fighting nobodies. I want to box the best that are out there, and Michael Grant is definitely the best right now.''
When Lewis last fought at Madison Square Garden just over a year ago, he was the victim of a blatant larceny when the first Holyfield fight was officially judged a draw. Is he concerned about returning to the scene of the crime?
``No,'' he said. ``Hopefully I won't leave it to the judges. I don't plan on it
anyway, but I'm sure after the last controversy that happened in the Garden,
they wouldn't want that to happen again. Too many people will be watching.''