Michael Grant (boxer)

Michael Grant
Data
Birth Name	Michael Anthony Grant
Fight name	Big
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	4th August 1972
place of birth	Chicago
style	Left delivery
size	2.01 m
Range	2.18 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	54
Victories	48
Knockout victories	36
Defeats	6th
Profile in the BoxRec database

Michael Grant (born August 4, 1972 in Chicago ) is an American heavyweight boxer .

amateur

He played only twelve fights, of which he won eleven. He suffered his only loss to Derrick Jefferson .

Professional career

The very tall and muscular Grant made his professional debut in 1994. Grant's main weapon was and is his striking hand. His trainer was Holyfield coach Don Turner.

In the build-up phase, he defeated Corey Sanders (not to be confused with the South African Corrie Sanders ), Ross Puritty and 1997 Lionel Butler, who had previously made a name for himself by knockout victories against James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Tony Tubbs . Then he was the first boxer who could beat the former cruiserweight world champion Alfred Cole prematurely. In the next fight he won against the Cuban Jorge Luis González by first-round knockout.

After another knockout win against David Izon , he was listed in the top 10 by " Ring Magazine " in 1998 . Obed Sullivan, later Vitali Klitschko's opponent in the World Cup , was also knocked out against Grant for the first time in his career.

In 1999 he clearly defeated Lou Savarese on points, had him twice on the ground and almost KO, but received bad reviews for the performance. For the first time, its meteoric rise seemed to be slowed. Nevertheless, it came on the cover of the English magazine Boxing Monthly . He was only 26 years old and unbeaten in 30 fights.

The worries grew, however, when he not only had to hit the ground twice in the first round against Andrzej Gołota , but was also clearly dominated afterwards. Grant managed to win early in the tenth round when Gołota, clearly leading on points, gave up the fight due to a downpour. However, this was attributed to Gołota's unstable psyche. This victory made him the mandatory challenger of the world champion Lennox Lewis . Despite the mixed performance against Gołota, many experts even rated him as a favorite against Lewis, interpreting the win over Gołota as an expression of his fighter heart.

In the world championship fight against Lewis on April 29, 2000, however, he had no chance, was knocked down several times in the first round and finally went KO after an uppercut in the second round. After this severe defeat, he never made it back to the top of the world and could not even come close to building on earlier achievements.

In a comeback fight against Jameel McCline more than a year later , he injured his leg early and had to give up in the first round. At least since this fight he looked very insecure.

He knocked out seven build-up opponents until he faced the then undefeated Dominick Guinn in 2003 . In this fight it was clear that Grant had already passed his zenith; Guinn made the fight of his life and knocked Grant out.

Grant won three fights against average opponents and was inactive for two years afterwards. In 2007 and 2008 he boxed against opponents and was able to defeat them without any problems. Again, Grant was inactive for a year and a half. In 2010 he boxed against Tomasz Adamek and lost over twelve rounds on points. The following year he knocked out Tye Fields in the third and Francois Botha in the twelfth round. After another year and a half of inactivity, he met Carlos Takam in May 2013 . Takam beat him by technical knockout on round 8.

In October 2014, a fight between Manuel Charr and Samuel Peter was planned; Peter had to cancel the fight at short notice, so they were looking for an opponent for Charr. The 42-year-old Grant finally stepped in. He had been inactive for 17 months, only had three days to prepare, and looked unmotivated. Grant gave up the fight due to physical problems after the fifth round.

Web links

• Michael Grant in the BoxRec database