NEW YORK -- There's at least one prerequisite to becoming the people's champion: They have to want you.

	Lennox Lewis looks, talks and acts like a heavyweight champ, but has he proven anything?

Somebody should tell that to Lennox Lewis.

"The main thing I know is that I'm the undisputed champion, with the belts or without the belts," Lewis said. "I feel like I'm the people's champion."

The belts don't mean anything. That's why the term "undisputed heavyweight champion" doesn't mean anything.

And that's why Lennox Lewis doesn't mean anything.

His titles are tainted at best, and his road to obtain them has been common to say the least.

Lewis, the man who would be king of the heavyweight division if not for Don King, has his heart set on being some sort of champion. He might be the best and classiest heavyweight on the planet, but he hasn't been able to capture the public's imagination, partly because he has yet to produce a landmark victory -- in or out of the ring.

Lewis became history's most nondescript undisputed heavyweight champ with a make-good decision over Evander Holyfield five months ago. But Lewis won't enter Madison Square Garden with all three belts or the adoration of the masses Saturday night, when he fights Michael Grant.

One title was lost without a punch being thrown. A federal judge recently ruled Lewis couldn't keep the WBA belt because he didn't immediately fight the organization's mandatory challenger, John Ruiz. King, who promotes Ruiz, filed the lawsuit to strip Lewis.

Lewis, however, has been allowed to keep his WBC and IBF belts.

Small consolation. The IBF and WBC were the ones who cheated Lewis out of victory in his first unification bout with Holyfield in March of 1999.

Virtually every observer thought Lewis had dominated that fight, but IBF judge Eugenia Williams said Holyfield won the fight by two rounds. She even gave Holyfield the fifth round, during which Lewis staggered the Real Deal with the best punch of the night. WBC judge Larry O'Connell scored it a draw.

Lewis won a rematch with Holyfield to unify the title in Las Vegas, where nonpartisan judges were used, even though many felt the verdict was robbery in reverse. Holyfield took the fight to Lewis in virtually every round and stood strong the few times his opponent tried to get aggressive. Lewis' lackluster performance left his British minions, rowdily chanting at the start of the bout, silent at the end and shocked at the unanimous decision.

GRAHAM'S PREDICTION

Lennox Lewis is supposed to beat Michael Grant. When it comes to breaking down this fight, Lewis has everything going for him. He owns considerably more title-fight experience. He has faced better opposition. He boasts the venerable Emanuel Steward in his corner. Lewis, on the other hand, doesn't have much to go on aside from last November's off-the-canvas TKO of Andrew Golota, a man Lewis blasted out inside a round. Even Grant's trainer, Don Turner, has struggled against Lewis lately. Turner also trains Evander Holyfield. But as I see it, the verdict won't be that easy for Lewis Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. I predict Lewis will try to dominate the fight early as he did against Golota. But Grant, who was knocked down twice in the first round by the Foul Pole, will be defensively prepared, possibly even willing to give Lewis the first few rounds rather than trade with Lewis. Grant, however, will take the middle rounds and stagger Lewis more than once. I'll even venture to say Lewis will get knocked down once. Lewis, calling on his championship experience, will rise and gather himself. He will regain control in the latter rounds. Lewis will have accumulated enough rounds early that his late resurgence will win him the fight by a narrow, unanimous decision. --Tim Graham

"Lennox Lewis is in a unique position to wave them all goodbye," trainer Emanuel Steward said of Lewis' belts. "He could say he's no longer interested in the organizations, and he'd be a bigger person for it."

An act of defiance like that would make Saturday night truly noteworthy and mark a major step toward burying the alphabet superintendents. It even might make Lewis the people's champion.

But Lewis has said he will avoid making a monumental statement and walk into the ring Saturday night displaying the belts of the two organizations that sold him out just over a year ago.

Lewis (35-1-1, 27 knockouts) is about a 2½-to-1 favorite to beat Grant (31-0, 22) in a battle billed as "Two Big" because the former is 6-foot-5, 247 pounds, while the latter is 6-7, 250. But this attraction doesn't pack the power one might expect.

The Garden almost certainly will be sold out by Saturday night, but ticket sales and pay-per-view orders ($49.95) have been slow. This supposedly is the undisputed heavyweight champ, the man who calls himself the "people's champion." If this was a high-profile Holyfield or Oscar De La Hoya event, scalpers and cable companies would be reveling. The Real Deal and the Golden Boy don't know the meaning of the phrase "walk-up crowd."

Not helping Lewis' drawing power is the way he manufactured his career by using his roots to his advantage. The dreadlocked 34-year-old was born in London to Jamaican parents and won a gold medal for Canada in the 1988 Olympics. He moved back to England to forge a professional career because he felt it would be easier to capitalize in the shallow British heavyweight pool, but has lived in all three countries.

He truly claims no one nation and no one nation truly claims him, certainly not the United States.

Ask even the most astute boxing fan which of Lewis' performances are the most memorable and chances are the response would center not around the epic, but the bizarre.

Lewis' first title came out of the garbage -- literally. He was given the WBC title in 1992 after Riddick Bowe denounced the organization in a press conference by dumping the belt in a trash can. Lewis was named champion based on his previous KO victory over Razor Ruddock.

And as strange as the Holyfield decisions were, those aren't nearly the most peculiar entries on Lewis' professional ledger. He avenged his lone loss and won his title back when Oliver McCall broke down in tears during their 1997 rematch. One bout later, Lewis improved his record with another freebie when Henry Akinwande was disqualified for clutching instead of fighting.

Many point to Lewis' devastating first-round knockout of Andrew Golota in 1998 or his awesome sixth-round stoppage of Tommy Morrison in 1995 as his most impressive outings.

But both victims had more than blood coursing through their veins the nights they fought Lewis.

Golota, whose mental capacity prior to the fight was questioned by trainer Lou Duva, was found to have been taking steroids. Morrison, it would later be discovered, was infected with the HIV virus, and based on how the Duke has lived his breakneck life since then (multiple drug, drunk driving and weapons arrests), he obviously wasn't the stellar opponent everyone thought he was at the time.

Lewis did post one victory (arguably two) over Holyfield, possibly the best heavyweight of the 1990s. But Lewis was far from electric in those fights. Neither fighter scored a knockdown, and the number of bombs that landed weren't exactly mind blowing.

Lewis' resume is rather mediocre for an undisputed heavyweight champ. Sorry. That's "formerly" undisputed now.

Even Steward, who joined Lewis' corner after McCall's shocking second-round knockout of Lewis in 1994, has his doubts.

"I no longer can brag about this great talent if it doesn't come out in the fight," Steward said . "I'm tired of saying it. I know it's never been shown. I can't keep saying it. I think Grant is a perfect opportunity for Lennox to step up to the plate.

"To come out and establish himself as a strong, dominant heavyweight champion, he's got to do that with a string of knockouts. ? Let's start a dominating era. Even if you don't have a good opponent you can dominate and receive recognition from the general public."

Tell that to Roy Jones.

But there are big fights out there, with Grant being among the top choices. Mike Tyson would be a blockbuster. David Tua is dangerous and the IBF's (legitimate) top-rated heavyweight. Ike Ibeabuchi would make an intriguing foe if somebody can spring him from the nut house.

"My legacy won't be apparent until I'm finished with boxing, and I haven't finished yet," Lewis told the London Evening Standard earlier this week. "But I hope that part of my legacy is that people will be able to look back at what I've achieved and say, 'This was a man who was up against it all but came out on top.' Is that too much to ask?"

Right now it is.

Tim Graham is a veteran boxing writer who pens a bi-weekly column for ESPN.com.