Published: July 23, 2008 01:20 am      

COLUMN: Grant has championship in his blood

MORGANTOWN — You know how kids are.

They get mad at each other, one thing leads to another and before long one kid is saying to the other “My dad can beat up your dad.” And the other kid replies, “No, my dad can beat up your dad.”

When Uriah Grant, one of West Virginia’s better recruits out of Florida who will begin his college career when the team begins summer camp in a couple of weeks, said that he meant it.

After all, why not.

His father beat one of the all-time great boxers, Thomas “Hitman” Hearns.

As the kids would have said, “Honest, he did.”

For whatever reason, time has sort of erased the name of Uriah Grant from our minds.

But Grant’s father, who also was Uriah Grant, was a good enough fighter to become a world champion, short-lived though it was.

And, yes, he beat Thomas Hearns.

As Casey Stengel said, “You could look it up.”

His record shows that he finished his career with a 30-21 record, but that was more than a bit deceiving. Born in Jamaica, Grant fought no fewer than nine world champions over a 20-year career, in addition holding the WBC cruiserweight crown himself.

Right from the start he was a guy who would go in against anybody. His opponent for his second professional fight was a guy making his professional debut, a guy who had just won the 1984 Olympic Gold Medal named Henry Tillman.

Grant lost.

And ther was the 1990 fight against a tough guy named Bobby Czyz, a fight he lost only because Czyz was saved by the bell — literally — in a fight The New York Times referred to as “The Gong Show” after the final bell rang a full minute early as Grant was pummeling Czyz.

After The Times made fun of the ending, that led to a decision by Czyz even though Grant was pounding him through the final rounds, Czyz’s brother, Vincent, took offense to the fight being characterized as “The Gong Show”, writing a letter to the editor:

“I cannot speak for Uriah Grant, but both of Bobby Czyz’s eyes were nearly shut by the end of the fight, his nose may have been broken (he has already had three operations on it), and it has been determined from pupil response that he has a concussion. For anyone interested, the punch Grant landed in the ninth (a left hook) caused an eye muscle to spasm and Bobby simply couldn’t see Uriah in the 10th. ‘’There were three blurs and I didn’t know which one was throwing punches,’’ he told me. The spasms continued right up until the news conference after the fight.

“The Gong Show?”

Certainly, this is not the first time a controversy of this type (the ring bell ends a minute prematurely and the fight is called) has occurred in boxing. As for the referee’s failing to stop the fight, if he were really swinging things Bobby’s way he would have given him a standing eight-count. In fact, he should have done so with a fighter helpless on the ropes. The rule, if you take the time to make a phone call, was in effect.”

Grant was knocked out only five times, and he was in with some pretty big names of his day such as Matthew Saad Muhammad, Saul Montana, Frank Tate and Alfred Cole.

He fought Cole twice for the IBF cruiserweight title and lost.

Then, he got a third shot at a title, fighting Adolpho Washington for the IBF crown Cole had vacated. At 25-12 at the time, he was given little chance against Washington, who had but one loss, he took the title.

He was a champion only until his next fight, losing by unanimous decision to Imamu Mayfield, then was knocked out in the final round by Montana in his first fight after losing the crown.

In 2000, he found himself fighting Hearns in what was supposed to be “The Hitman’s” final fight.

This was “Rocky” all over again. The superstar against a tough guy who couldn’t win.

Only the script was written so this would be Grant’s night.

The record book says he won by a TKO in the second round and he’ll take it, but the truth is that Hearns sprained his ankle and could not come out for the third round.

It was a sad end for a great career.

This is how Richard Hoffer, the great “Sports Illustrated” boxing writer, chroinicled it:

“So this is how it ends, as if we didn’t already know. With some kind of disaster, some sort of embarrassment, regret, disappointment above all. A legacy established over 23 years of boxing, meant to be honored in one last showcase, is instead tarnished. Too bad that so many people will now remember Thomas Hearns, one of the greatest fighters ever, limping back to his corner after turning his right ankle, unable to come out for even a third round against Uriah Grant. Uriah Grant! Too bad, really, that anybody should remember that.”

What’s worse is that they don’t remember the man who beat him, who had his own last hurrah in that fight.

Maybe through his son, a 265-pound defensive lineman out of Miami, his memory will be revived.

Or maybe, in a real ironic twist, Uriah Grant will tackle so well, so hard that he’ll earn a nickname of his own.

Maybe Uriah Grant will become West Virginia’s “Hitman.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.