Jamaican former world middleweight boxing champion Otis Grant on Monday night made history in Canada becoming the first athlete to be inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame under five years of retiring.

Grant - a former World Boxing Organisation (WBO) middleweight world champion - has also held the World Boxing Council (WBC) intercontinental super middleweight, WBC international super middleweight, Canadian middleweight, Canadian super middleweight and North American Boxing Federation middleweight titles.

He was inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame just two years after retiring from the ring.

In a ceremony at the Casino de Montreal, he was inducted alongside Canadian sporting greats Graham Cooke, (golf), Anna Pelletier (diving), Guy Lapointe (hockey), Lucie Lemay-Goyette (archery), and Marcel Aubut (builders category).

Grant, who received three standing ovations for his acceptance speech, said it was a very special moment for him. "It was a special moment for me because had it been a boxing hall of fame, I would expect to get there, but this is a hall of fame that recognises the best of the best in all sports. In my speech, I mentioned that when someone retires from a sport they usually wait some five years before they are inducted in case they come back, but they put me in right away and it has been two years since I retired after my comeback," he said.

The St Ann-born makes the cut at only 41 years old and he feels even more special to be inducted with the other four inductees. "To be inducted with famous hockey players in a huge hockey town was great... all these guys are idols in this part of the world," Grant said.

Grant, along with his brother Howard, runs one of the top boxing gyms in Canada, he also does charity work through the Otis Grant foundation and is a high school administrator.

An induction to the boxing hall of fame could be looming and Grant, while acknowledging that that would be great, said nothing will top this one.

"You know if I was inducted to the boxing hall of fame that would be great, but this one I think means more," he noted.

Grant's moniker in the ring was 'Magic' and it just might be magic that a man who retired only two years ago finds himself inducted with athletes whom he grew up watching, and it's a first that anyone received the honour in only his/her second year of retirement. The Montreal-based Jamaican retired with a record of 38-3-1 (17 KOs).

He was forced into retirement back in 1998 - after he lost in a bid for WBC/WBA light heavyweight belts against Roy Jones Jr in Connecticut - due to a terrible motor vehicle accident that left him so badly injured that doctors said he would not live let alone box again.

Like a true Jamaican, however, Grant defied the odds and returned to the ring in 2003 and won the Canadian super middleweight title in only his third fight back. He racked up a seven-fight unbeaten streak, claiming the WBC International Super Middleweight title. He lost a title eliminator against Librado Andrade (now trained by Howard) and then decided to call it a day.

Executive Class

Gardens with Gravel

Death to the Mullet!