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August 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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MUST TRY HARDER
Unbeaten giant Michael Grant has all the tools, but his win over Lou Savarese suggested that he’s happy to dominate rather than destroy. STEVE FARHOOD reports from NYC |
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TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: Savarese went down twice in the last round,
when Grant finally went to work
- Get Big Pic The hometown chants of "Lou! Lou! Lou!" were no longer even echoes, and
by the finish, Lou Savarese was bleeding from too many places. He had
lost eight of 10 rounds, and if the fight had been scheduled for one
more minute, he probably wouldn’t have finished on his feet. As it was,
referee Jim Santa had given him an early Christmas gift by allowing him
to survive two 10th-round knockdowns.
"This is your life, son," trainer Jesse Reid screamed at Savarese
before the start of the last round. If that was the case, Savarese’s
life had degenerated into an extended train wreck.
The heavyweight meting out the punishment, muscling his man from the
third round forward, throwing a lightweight-like 93 punches in the 10th
round, and winning as he pleased was Michael Grant. So why was everyone
so anxious to pan his performance and question his potential?
The answer is simple: Long ago, the media fingered Grant as the
heavyweight of the future. So what better time to criticise him than the
present, while there’s still the opportunity?
As is often the case with heavily hyped heavyweights, Grant’s effort was
both dominant and disappointing. "Maybe the most impressive performance
by Michael Grant in the last two years," said HBO blow-by-blow announcer
Jim Lampley. "I don’t think [Grant] ever got completely into the fight,
for whatever reason," said Grant’s manager, Craig Hamilton.
Could they both have been right?
Those hoping to hop the Grant bandwagon were keying on a KO victory.
Firstly, Savarese, a 15-1 underdog, had been dropped by Mount Whitaker
and stopped by David Izon. As big and powerful as Grant was, a points
win, no matter how convincing, was going to be greeted by a chorus of
"so what?" Secondly, Grant needed to keep pace; his most prominent
peers, Ike Ibeabuchi and David Tua, were coming off significant stoppage
wins, the former over Chris Byrd, the latter over Hasim Rahman. And
thirdly, the Lewis-Holyfield rematch was in jeopardy. While John Ruiz is
the WBC’s No. 1 contender, he hasn’t yet been awarded mandatory status.
As a result, Lewis was searching for a second option. "I want to fight
again this year," he said at an informal press conference an hour before
the start of the Grant-Savarese card. "I have to keep my career moving,
and there’s been a lot of talk about Michael Grant."
When asked what he thought of Grant, Lewis said: "I think he’s a nice
fellow." The question was amended: What do you think of Grant as a
fighter? "I think he’s a nice fellow," Lewis repeated, drawing the
intended laughs. Do you think he’s ready for you? "No," Added Panos
Eliades, who co-promotes Lewis. "That’s why we want to fight him."
Interviewed after the Savarese fight, Emanuel Steward, Lewis’s
trainer, was much harsher. "When you talk about heavyweights, I don’t
even think about Michael Grant unless you mention him," Steward said.
"He hasn’t beaten anyone still. He’s robotic, and I see problems with
the way he holds his hands. I don’t see him as a threat to Lennox right
now."
Maybe so, but after a couple of unexceptional rounds, the 6ft 7ins
Grant, from Norristown, Pennsylvania, became a terrible threat to the
two-inches shorter Savarese. Big Lou’s game plan was to step to the
right and fire his right. For six minutes, the 240lbs (17st 2lbs)
veteran from Greenwood Lake, New York was mildly successful. His best
punch came in the second, and it drew a smile from the slow-starting
Grant, who weighed 256lbs (18st 4lbs). A look at the replay, however,
revealed that Grant had ridden with the punch.
Savarese, 39-3 (32 KOs), never recovered from the ugliness of round
three. He suffered a bad cut over his left eye early in the round and
almost immediately abandoned his strategy. Worse yet, when the fight
went inside, Grant established his superiority with several heavy
bodypunches and a pair of right uppercuts. Grant moved outside in the
third, where he was able to extend his right hand. (The giant has an
extraordinary reach of 86 inches.) But when he returned to his corner,
trainer Don Turner wasn’t satisfied. "C’mon, man, get mean," he said.
"Do your job."
From the fifth to the finish, the battle was waged in a phone booth,
with Savarese content to clinch whenever possible. Grant did all the
scoring, punching to the body and below. ("He’s a dirty fighter for a
young guy," moaned Savarese afterwards.) Savarese suffered additional
cuts over his left eye and inside his mouth; he was spitting some blood
and swallowing who knows how much more. "You gotta get the guy outta
here," Turner told Grant, but there would be no decisive blows.
"Grant," said HBO analyst Larry Merchant, "is a dominator, not a
terminator."
In the sixth and seventh, Grant pushed Savarese back, but with
forearms, shoulders, elbows, and bodypunches, not jabs and straight
rights. Savarese was in trouble for the first time in the eighth, eating
uppercuts, as well as Grant’s best right hand of the fight. Blood was
pouring from his cuts, and when tape came loose from his left glove, the
brief time out helped save him.
Savarese switched full-time to survival mode in the ninth. "Lou was
holding a lot and Michael just didn’t know what to do," said Don Turner,
Grant’s trainer. Grant almost finished his man in the last 20 seconds,
then broke through again in the 10th. He opened the last round with the
move of a veteran, jabbing three times to the stomach, then feinting a
fourth jab and firing a lead right to the head. A follow-up hook sent
Savarese reeling, and when he finally went down, he fell through the
ropes and onto the apron, inches from the lap of judge Joe Dwyer. Big
Lou rose at Santa’s count of seven, but there were still two minutes
remaining. Utterly exhausted, he fell for a second time with 35 seconds
left. Had he not clinched in the last five seconds, Santa might’ve
intervened.
The decision was unanimous, with two scores of 98-90 (Melvina Lathan
and Steve Weisfeld) and 97-91 (Dwyer). The numbers were promising, with
Savarese landing only 24% of his punches, where previous Grant opponents
had averaged almost 50%. But the victory wasn’t what it could’ve been -
or should’ve been.
"We’d all like to see Michael fight all the time the way he did in the
seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th rounds of this fight," said Hamilton.
"But he dominated from the first minute to the last minute. He has only
six years in the business of fighting and it shows sometimes, but he’s
dominated every guy he’s fought."
The victory was Grant’s 30th in 30 pro starts, with 21 inside the
distance. (He went 11-1 as an amateur.) That he won surprised no one.
How he won, however, created some debate, with all arguments leading to
the same question: Is he ready for Lewis?
Grant is unique in the sense that never before has there been a
heavyweight who combines his size with pure athleticism. In the old
days, gigantic heavyweights were almost always slow and uncoordinated.
(Blubbery Buster Mathis was a notable exception.) But if Grant is a
great athlete and only a good fighter, he’ll ultimately be exposed.
"We’ve had some great heavyweight champions who didn’t look like great
athletes," said ESPN2 analyst Teddy Atlas, who also trains heavyweight
contender Kirk Johnson.
The major criticism from the Savarese fight was that Grant allowed
Savarese to crowd him. I’m not sure it’s a valid complaint; I’ve seen
most of Grant’s fights, and he’s always been better inside than outside.
But he is 6ft 7ins, and my opinion is in the minority.
"I think he’s best coming in behind his jab," said Hamilton, "and at a
point in the fight he abandoned that. I think Roy Jones has a point. He
said Michael’s distance between himself and his opponent isn’t what it
should be. He’s a good inside fighter, and he hurt Lou to the body, but
he’d be better served to use his jab and right hand."
"Grant smothers himself and doesn’t get extension on his punches,"
said Atlas. "I just get the feeling he could do more with his left hand.
He’s one-dimensional offensively. It’s always jab-right hand or
jab-uppercut. That’s what they need to tackle now.
"His offense is part of his defensive problems: He allows guys to get
close enough to catch him. He wears down a certain calibre of fighter
fighting the wrong way. Against a better calibre of fighter, he won’t be
as effective doing it that way. I saw times [vs. Savarese] he couldn’t
get off certain punches because he got smothered. If he hadn’t, he
might’ve gotten rid of the guy in four, five, six rounds."
Grant has also been knocked for lacking passion. He’s laid back, a
genuine nice guy, and it often seems he won’t punch with bad intentions
unless provoked. Hamilton, for one, doesn’t buy it.
"I don’t think any athlete can compete at peak level when angry,"
Hamilton said. "Michael is always in control of his emotions, and that’s
a good thing. What you’re talking about is a killer instinct. Does he
have it? He does. But sometimes he gives the perception that he’s saving
gas in the tank for the later rounds. But believe me, he’s
extraordinarily competitive; he wants to win at everything. To get the
best out of any athlete, you have to put a challenge in front of him,
and we felt Lou was a better fighter than what had come before him."
Wouldn’t Lewis, then, be a far too big a jump? Hamilton, Turner, and
even Grant himself acknowledge the unbeaten contender is a work in
progress. But his positioning may dictate that he make that jump soon.
"Would I take Lewis as Michael’s next fight?" said Hamilton.
"Definitely. But I truly don’t believe that fight will happen. Lewis
wants Holyfield, and they’re gonna make that fight."
"I would say that off the Savarese fight, it still appears Grant has
some time before he makes the jump [to Lewis]," said Atlas. "He’s a good
athlete mentally and physically, but he’s underdeveloped in certain
areas, and you have to remind yourself of that if you’re navigating his
career. I don’t think I’d take a Lewis fight. I’d give him more time.
But I’ll qualify that answer by saying that if you think he can be
competitive, he might not win, but the experience could make him a
better fighter. There might be nowhere else to go, too. If he fights the
younger fighters, or the Kirk Johnsons, David Tuas, and Ibeabuchis, it
makes less sense because the value of the fight isn’t as high."
Ed Kotite, who manages Savarese, agrees - sort of.
"In a perfect world, you take more fights with Grant," Kotite said.
"You show him more styles. You can tell he hasn’t fought that much in
his life. But if the step presents itself with the right amount of
money, you take it. Those opportunities don’t come around too often, and
Michael has a real shot."
The ideal fight for any and all of the young heavyweights would be
Holyfield - after Lewis defeats "The Real Deal" in a rematch. But Grant
has repeatedly stated that he would never fight his friend and
stablemate. (Turner also trains Holyfield, and both heavyweights are
advised by Jim Thomas.) There’s been preliminary talks involving a
crossroads match-up between Grant and Ibeabuchi, and HBO’s Lou DiBella
fancies the bout. If Grant has his way, however, his next fight won’t be
Ibeabuchi or any of the other contenders.
"Even if the people wouldn’t want to see it, the fight I want is
Lennox," he said. "That’s the fight I want. But I don’t rely on Lennox
and Evander to dictate my future."
Perhaps it will be circumstances that dictate Grant’s future. At 26,
he’s young enough to wait, and at 30-0, he’s accomplished enough to
contend. Maybe he’ll get a whole lot better, maybe he won’t. Is he ready
to fight Lewis? When it comes to heavyweight title shots, "ready" is
strictly relative. In the meantime, Grant is like an Internet stock:
overpriced based on performance, but with an upside that excites even
the most cynical of traders.
I’d buy a few hundred shares in a heartbeat - if I could only afford
it. |
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