This Month in Boxing History: April 2000–Lennox Lewis vs. Michael Grant.

April of 2000 saw Lennox Lewis’s first defense as the unified heavyweight champion. The Briton had lost and regained the world championship to Oliver McCall and followed this up with defenses against Henry Akinwande, Andrew Golota (who he blew away in 97 seconds), Shannon Briggs and

Zeljko Mavrovic. He then unified the title on points in November of 1999 against WBA and IBF heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield having previously fought a controversial draw against the “Real Deal.” Michael Grant, Lewis’s first challenger of the new millennium was the man touted by the American public as the future of the heavyweight division. Aged twenty-seven and with a perfect record of 31-0 with 22 knockouts, he was perceived by many as the next world heavyweight champion and had earned his shot at Lewis with a come from behind tenth round knock out over Andrew Golota the previous November. He also had on his record names such as Lou Savarese and David Izon.

Lewis at the commencement of 2000 was the WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight champion. However, he was stripped of the WBA version of the crown for failing to agree terms to meet their number one contender John Ruiz and choosing to take a fight against Grant. This was to be a battle of the big men with Lewis standing six-feet-five and weighing 247-pounds. Grant stood six-feet-seven and weighed 250-pounds. This was one of the few times that someone was physically bigger than the champion. The fight would be held at New York’s Madison Square Garden; for many, the Mecca of boxing and the stage for Lewis’s controversial draw with Holyfield the previous March.

At the referees instructions Grant uttered his customary words “God Bless You” as the fighters touched gloves. As the fight commenced, Grant’s plan was to outwork Lewis and he made a fast start scoring with a right hand and left hook to Lewis’s head. The champion was unperturbed by this, choosing to walk straight through the challenger and attempt to land clubbing blows. Midway through Round one, Lewis landed a crunching right uppercut and Grant went down. Moments later, with Grant’s legs still betraying him, he went down again from an accumulation of clubbing blows. Although he got up, the writing was on the wall and moments from the bell to sound the end of the first round, a chopping right hand from the champion floored Grant for the third time. There was no three knockdown rule for this bout and the bell saved Grant.

Round two saw Lewis straight on the attack and Grant, although totally out-gunned, was showing remarkable bravery and even managed to land a good left hand on the champion’s chin. Lewis continued with his brawling style, continuing to score with bruising uppercuts. It was only a matter of time before Grant would fall like an oak tree. That moment came twenty seconds from the end of round two when another monster right uppercut landed flush on the American’s chin, flooring him for a count of ten, although Grant still gamely tried to rise.

Lewis finished the year with defenses against Frans Botha and David Tua, both of whom were conclusively defeated. After losing and regaining the title for a third time against Hasim Rahman, he ended his career with successful title defenses against Mike Tyson and Vitali Klitschko. Grant never again saw the title picture after the Lewis battering. One year later on the comeback trail, he sustained heavy knee damage in a one round loss to Jameel McCline. Although he came back in 2002 with three straight wins, any chance of a title shot were seemingly ended with defeat in seven rounds against up and coming heavyweight Dominick Guinn.

The Grant fight in April 2000 showed in my opinion why Lennox Lewis is amongst the all time greats. Rather than show his tremendous boxing skills, he chose to bludgeon his opponent in this one, using his tremendous physical strength in a performance similar to those against Derek Williams and Shannon Briggs. Lewis was strangely criticized for this performance against Grant, being called amateurish, clumsy and off balance. However, had Lewis boxed his way to victory, one would think he would have been blasted by the press for that too.