Au contraire. He would need to be at his absolute best to beat any live Heavyweight, so it's appropriate. I was astonished so many people went in for the Grant hype from the get-go. That was one piece of wool which was never going over these eyes.
Especially after the mental case Andrew Golota had him out early but couldn't finish the job. Loved his courage though, to comeback from being hurt like that to score a TKO victory, and to keep fighting after suffering three knockdowns, one of which according to Big George Foreman broke his legs.
Grant was universally ranked #3 when the division was still solid according to most, so he indeed has had a prime. And IMO younger, faster and sharper Grant would have timed a couple of right hands and taken Adamek out in about five rounds
He's lucky ole Ike got locked up. Ike would have saved Lewis the trouble of wasting him. So too for that matter would have Tua. And even the Tyson of 99-00 would have destroyed Grant. So I dont care how highly he was ranked, he was never the 3rd best fighter in the division. BUT to stay on topic.... the 99 Grant beats the shit outta Adamek and KO's him in about 5 like you said. A younger Golota would have destroyed Adamek also. Adamek is just not a good heavyweight. ONLY in this piss pathetic heavyweight era could he be a contender.
Well don't forget that the only thing he has actually done in the heavyweight so far is to narrowly outpoint Chris Arreola. He beat a shot to shit Golota, nobody named Estrada and Grant who nobody knew was even fighting anymore. He is called a contender since practically there is nobody else around but for what we have see he could get beat by pretty much any top-20 heavyweight. So far he is far less proven than Grant who became top contender by actually beating a couple of useful names Too bad a 6'2 and 218 lbs is a grossly outsized midget these days :stir:
Its not Adamek's lack of size that hurts him, its his lack of power. You can still be a small heavy and have success if you can turn someone's lights out. Adamek cant do that.
I can't believe it either. Grant was shit...from ever. He was just a big strong guy...he had no boxing talent whatsoever...and was lucky to get past Golota (the fight that made him the hype).
Actually Golota fight more broke his bubble than made it. He had become a contender by beating the likes of Izon (top-10 by the Ring at the time), Savarese, Cole, Sullivan, Butler and other average level guys. Golota was the first real top heavyweight he fought. Also I think Grant had plenty of talent: he has reach, he was pretty quick back then, his right cross was hard and he was able to put up combinations too. Ironically enough, before the Golota fight even his chin was praised. What he lacked was not talent but skill: he got hit too much and lost his balance which made him vulnerable. Then after Lennox and Teddy Atlas together wrecked his self-confidence completely, he became useless
Current Grant and "Prime Grant" is the same thing. Except one difference maybe and that being that prior to the Golota fight Grant thought he was all that so his confidence made him a bit better.
Contrary to the utterances of so many revisionists around these days - Grant was a legitimate contender and no worse, imo, than the #2 contender in the world at the time Lennox fought him, behind only David Tua. Grant had good wins over Al Cole, Ross Purrity, Obed Sullivan, David Izon, Savarese and Golota (a win is a win). These are star studded names but they were better than any other contender's resume at the time except for Tua and old timers like Evander and Tyson etc.
