Blue Bell heavyweight Michael Grant savors a late success

When Blue Bell's Michael Grant stepped between the ropes in Madison Square Garden more than 11 years ago to challenge Lennox Lewis for his undisputed heavyweight title, he did so with a 31-0 record, with a No. 3 world ranking, and harboring more self-doubt than at any other point in his career.

"I sensed it," said Grant, who was then 28 and a sculpted 6-foot-7, 250 pounds of sinewy muscle, reflecting on Lewis' second-round knockout victory over him. "I'm not naive to that fact. No matter how you slice that pie, it wasn't ready to be cut."

With a barrage of overhand rights and uppercuts, Lewis, every bit as large as Grant, floored him three times in the first round, then dispatched him with a savage uppercut late in the second.

Fast-forward to Nov. 19, 2011, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Grant, 39, and nowhere near the top 20 in any of boxing's smorgasbord of alphabet-soup rankings, was taking a shellacking at the hands of 43-year-old Francois Botha. Grant, the owner of an 86-inch reach that he had never used to his advantage, knew that only a knockout would earn him the vacant World Boxing Federation heavyweight title that awaited the winner.

Somehow, he delivered.

With 37 seconds remaining in the 12th round, Grant (48-4, 36 knockouts) delivered a massive overhand right to Botha's jaw behind two left jabs, crumpling the South African in the corner, ending the fight, and possibly positioning Grant for one last payday against either Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian brothers who now dominate the heavyweight division. Grant now has a mandatory rematch scheduled with Botha in the spring.

"I was ready that night," said Grant, comparing last weekend's victory to his failed attempt to lift the crown from Lewis. "It has to come in time - you have to be ready when your time is here. At 39, I feel like it's my time."

While Grant has made Atlanta his home for the better part of the last five years, when he was introduced at Montecasino, the entertainment complex in Johannesburg that hosted the fight, it was as Michael Grant of Blue Bell.

"I have deep roots there," said Grant, who lived in the Philadelphia area for almost 15 years. "I came up as a fighter in Philly. I was molded there. It holds a special place in my heart."

For years, Grant trained out of James Shuler's gym in West Philadelphia. He has a close relationship with current WBC light-heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins. He counts Jimmy Rollins, Donovan McNabb - like Grant, born in Chicago - and Allen Iverson among his friends.

Iverson, whom he met on excursions to the King of Prussia Mall, is living in Atlanta. Grant said the two are much closer now.

"That's my dude," Grant said.

But more than any other Philly tie Grant has, it is the one that has grown between him and former Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham that has helped him professionally and personally.

An ordained minister since March 2004, Cunningham is the senior pastor at Remnant Ministries, a multicultural Christian church in Las Vegas. Cunningham met Grant in the early 1990s and their friendship remains robust. When Grant trains in Las Vegas for a fight, he often attends Cunningham's church. They often ate meals together. Often they prayed together.

"The times that he has come to town, he has always come to church and I would pour into him," said Cunningham, the Eagles quarterback from 1985 to 1995. "He was always upbeat and positive, never negative. He's always talking good about people. He's a gentle giant."

The loss to Lewis was devastating in a number of ways for Grant. It was 15 months before he stepped into the ring again. In the interim he underwent knee and ankle surgeries. And when he finally fought again, against Jameel McCline, the result was just as discouraging.

A 5-1 favorite, Grant absorbed a crushing left hook - the first punch of the fight - less than 10 seconds into the first round, warranting a standing eight count. Grant recovered, but he had reinjured his ankle, saying at the time it was broken, and the referee stepped in to end the bout.

"Something was going wrong," Grant said. "Too much of the wrong stuff was happening. My knee. My ankle. There were too many hiccups. I was making too many of the wrong decisions. But I knew that I could figure it out. I knew that people were going to stop believing in me, but it didn't matter."

Over the next 10 years before the Botha fight, Grant was a respectable but unimpressive 15-2. He disappeared from the rankings - not easy these days with the state of boxing being what it is. As recently as August 2010, he lost a unanimous decision to Tomasz Adamek, a blown-up light-heavyweight almost 45 pounds lighter than Grant.

All the while, Grant never thought of retiring. And Cunningham continued to minister to him.

"The thing about Christian athletes is that we learn to keep our faith when the odds are against us," said Cunningham, an avid boxing fan who watched the Botha fight. "God always wants to show up. This last fight, Michael was getting beat up a little bit, but he kept his faith. In the end, we always become the victors."

Grant set up the fight for the WBF crown (vacated by the 49-year-old Evander Holyfield) with a third-round knockout of Tye Fields in March. Now, 17 years after his pro debut, Grant wants to fight a Klitschko.

But is he ready?

Not yet, said Grant's trainer, Jason Jorgensen.

Between them, Vitali (40 years old, with a 43-2 record and 40 knockouts) and Wladimir (35, 56-3, 49 knockouts) hold the WBA (Super), IBF, WB (Super), IBO, Ring Magazine, and WBC heavyweight crowns. The Klitschkos have won their last 25 fights. They are big punchers, and, much to Jorgensen's chagrin, they use their jabs much better and far more frequently than his fighter.

"I'm a realist, not a cheerleader," Jorgensen said. "I wouldn't want to put him in that fight right now. I'd like more time to work with him to get him ready for that fight. Everybody knows he has a good right hand and can punch. But when he fights the Klitschkos, he's going to have to have a jab that he's confident in because those guys definitely do.

"And we're going to have to work on him keeping that left hand up more to avoid that right hand," Jorgensen continued. "If we can develop that, we have the size, we have the strength it takes to fight those guys. And he can fight inside with those guys. But we've got to develop our chess match with that jab. Once we do that, we're ready to go."

More than a decade after most wrote him off, his trainer's apprehension doesn't bother Grant.

"When I fought Lennox, I was looking at 30. Now I'm 39 - but the difference is, I'm living right," said Grant, who made a career-best $3.5 million against Lewis. "[The Klitschkos] are around my age. So if the favor turns my way, I'm blessed to take it."