Boxing

Michael Grant on a long road back

By Janne Romppainen

30.05 - The upcoming week in boxing seems quite intriguing as the audience is still waiting for the big rematches between Mayorga-Forrest and De la Hoya-Mosley later this summer. While anticipating those fights all the boxing fans can enjoy the time being by watching the card that is held on next weekend. Most of the media attention is concentrated to the main event that sees a rubber match between the light-welterweight warriors Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward, but the undercard offers an interesting heavyweight match-up between Michael Grant and Dominick Quinn too.

The heavyweight contest is actually a rather rare type of a fight where two fighters that are considered as prospects (Michael Grant became a prospect again after being a world-class fighter) face each other. The fight is scheduled for ten rounds.

Michael Grant’s career has been one of the most unusual ones in the recent boxing history and it has reminded a path of a yo-yo. He had practically no amateur experience when he started his career, he came up fast, defeated everybody on the way to become the leading contender of the world, suffered two back-to-back knockout losses and fell again to the obscurity, from where he is trying to come up again.

It has been already over three years since Grant was a major player in the league. And he did look promising back then indeed. He was big, fast, skilful and tremendously powerful giant with his right hand being maybe the most destructive punch of the division. His chin seemed to take punishment well. His technique was good for a big man. Many expected to knock out the champion Lennox Lewis when he would get the chance.

Grant did get his chance and got brutalized inside two rounds. He came back, only to lose inside a minute to Jameel McCline. Suddenly all the hype was off. Grant was seen as a powerful but very flawed fighter with a weak chin and fatal shortcomings in his defence. Many wrote him off from the big picture of the heavyweight permanently.

For the last two years Grant has been doing a comeback. He has defeated seven low-profile opponents in a row. Grant has knocked them all out and actually he did look pretty good in doing so against the erratic Robert Davis, but on contrary in his last fight he struggled through eight rounds to come over Gilbert Martinez. Now his team feels that he is ready to step up in the competition as he faces so far the most dangerous opponent of his second coming.

Grant was clearly a case of too-much, too-soon. He was, and still is, a very talented athlete, but he didn’t have a chance to learn his profession all that well. He went far with his physical skills only, but got dropped even faster than he had risen. Now his trainer Teddy Atlas has taken a rather long time to build him up again. The fight against Quinn should show us something about how the process has succeeded so far. Personally, I am not impressed yet. I don’t mind the fact that it has taken so long for Grant to get back, he needs the experience. It is the way how he has looked that makes me unsure.

In his last fight, Grant had troubles against a fighter that he would certainly have easily knocked out earlier in his career. Grant’s skills have not gone worse, but they haven’t improved dramatically either. Grant still has his power, but he doesn’t seem to make any use of it anymore. What Grant is lacking today is his self-confidence. Where is the Michael Grant who came back after a nightmarish start and with his sheer heart battled out a victory against Andrew Golota? The lumbering heavyweight who did more clinching than punching against Martinez didn’t look like him.

In my opinion little carelessness is better than over-cautiousness which Grant has shown lately. He is too concerned for not getting hit than he is for throwing his own punches. Considering that earlier in his career Grant was able to shrug off shots from the likes of Lou Savarese and David Izon I think he should rely on his chin a little more. This is where I think Atlas has so far failed when training Grant. The main thing should be to get his self-trust back on form and after that everything else would come easier. Without it Grant is like a truck which is big and has a lot of potential energy but doesn’t want to hurt anybody.

The fight with Quinn will tell us lot more about Grant, and about Quinn too of course. Quinn has beaten the usual opponents of an up-and-comer and gathered a list of 21-0, 16 knockouts. Usually he has won easily but there was one fight that maybe gives a reason for concern. He was held for the full eight rounds by Garing Lane whom he finally won by a split decision. Lane is a seasoned old warhorse but he shouldn’t give much problems to anybody who really has the tools to make it to the top. It might have been just an off-night for Quinn though and he came back to look good in his next fight.

The upcoming fight looks to be a battle of styles with Quinn being a very fast heavyweight with a sharp jab whereas Grant is the bigger and more powerful man. Both men have looked both good and not-so-good lately so it is hard to predict what kind of a fight it will be. I hope Grant is able to get his career back on the track since I think he still has the time – and the talent to become a world-class player. I pick Grant with a 7th-round stoppage but Quinn certainly has different ideas. Whoever comes out as the winner is again one step closer to the top-10 rankings where there is a lot of space to be filled.

Comments/questions: janneromppainen@hotmail.com

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