By Manuel Perez: After two back to back disappointing performances, World Boxing Council number #5 ranked cruiserweight Matt Godfrey (17-1, 10 KOs) defeated WBA #9th ranked Emmanuel Nwodo (22-5, 18 KOs) by a 4th round stoppage to win the NABF cruiserweight title on Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in Uncasville, Connecticut. The fight, however, wasn’t without drama, for Godfrey was knocked down in the third round and should have been knocked down in the 1st, but the referee missed the call.
Up until the stoppage in the 4th, Godfrey had lost every round and looked worried and more than a little over-matched by the bigger, more powerful 6’3″ Nigerian Nwodo. However, the bout changed course suddenly in the 4th when Godfrey hurt Nwodo with a sneaky right hand. He then pummeled Nwodo around the ring, bloodying his nose and almost causing him to go down. Finally, referee Danny Schiavone stepped in and halted the bout at 1:57 of the 4th round.
Godfrey, 27, a standout amateur, recently lost to Rudolf Kraj in the WBC cruiserweight title eliminator match in March. In the bout before that, Godfrey struggled to beat Derrick Brown, who had Godfrey hurt at one point in the fight. Against Nwodo, it appeared that Godfrey was well on his way to being beaten once again by the hard-punching Nwodo. Initially, Godfrey attempted to mix it up with Nwodo early in the 1st round, but after getting a taste of his power, he backed off and began moving side to side to prevent Nwodo from landing his big right hand.
It only partially worked, though, because Nwodo easily found Godfrey often with his long right hand, burying into his soft midsection and face. After attempting a clumsy charge forward and getting hit with a big right for all his efforts, Godfrey was sent down to the canvas with a right hand to the side of his head. The referee, however, failed to see the right hand that sent Godfrey down and mistakenly ruled it a slip. For the remainder of the round, Nwodo landed right hands while Godfrey did pretty much nothing.
Nwodo continued to dominate the action in rounds two and three, hitting Godfrey with sharp uppercuts and big right hands. The most Godfrey would do unfortunately was grab Nwodo in a clinch and hit him with short right hands while holding onto him. It had no effect other than annoying Nwodo, but it was the best that the smallish 6’0″ Godfrey could do at the time.
He didn’t have the power to go right at Nwodo head to head at this stage, and if he’d have done that it probably would have been a fatal mistake for him. In the third round, Godfrey threw a right hand at the exact same time that Nwodo threw his, both landing at the same exact time, sending Godfrey down to the canvas. He wasn’t hurt, just surprised by the shot. After the knockdown, Nwodo continued landing well for the remainder of the round. Godfrey, for his part, did the same as in the other rounds, mostly clinching and hitting while in a clinch to the side of Nwodo’s head.
In the 4th round, after taking a number of hard shots from Nwodo early in the round, Godfrey landed a hard right hand that staggered Nwodo. The punch didn’t seem all that hard, however, and it seemed to be more of a case of Nwodo’s soft chin failing him like it did in his last bout when he was knocked out. Godfrey continued battering Nwodo, hoping to finish him off.
During the course of the one-sided battering in the round, Nwodo’s nose began to bleed badly at the bridge of his nose, making it appear that his nose has either been busted or badly cut. Shortly after that, referee Danny Schiavone stepped in and stopped the bout as Nwodo was staggering all around the ring and would have likely gone down in another 20 to 30 seconds at the rate that he was getting hit by Godfrey.
It was a good win for Godfrey, who now finds himself back in the mix again in the division. I think he’s more than good enough to beat one of the champions, especially Steve Cunningham and Firat Arslan. Hopefully, he gets a shot at one of them. I don’t like his chances against some of the better rising cruiserweights in the division, so hopefully he gets a title shot before one of them moves past him.
In the undercard, undefeated featherweight prospect Matt Remillard (15-0, 8 KOs) defeated last minute replacement Adauto Gonzalez (9-5, 3 KOs) in the 4th round of a scheduled 10-round bout, to win the vacant WBC USNBC featherweight title. Gonzalez, who had lost four out of his last six fights coming into Friday’s bout, fought hard in the first two rounds, landing hard hooks to the head and body of Remillard. However, Gonzalez was fighting at a pace that he couldn’t keep up, as if he was gambling that he might be able to score an upset knockout win if he were to fight hard at the beginning.
However, Remillard, a top amateur fighter, stayed patient during this time and waited him out. In the second half of the third round, Remillard finally came to life, landing hard hooks to the body of Gonzalez and backing him up for the first time in the fight. In the fourth round, Gonzalez came out fast and landed some hard left hands. However, Remillard calmly dropped him to one knee with a big left hook to the head. After getting up from the knockdown, Gonzalez was met with a storm of shots, and was dropped for a second time with a powerful left hook to the body. Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. then stepped in and stopped the fight at 1:13 of the 4th round.
In other action, undefeated light heavyweight prospect Brian Macy (5-0, 2 KOs) KO’d an over-matched Shawn Kirk (4-3, 2 KOs) in the 1st round, knocking him down with a hard left hook to the body. After hitting the canvas, Kirk lay grimacing in pain for several minutes while a ringside doctor attended to him. Referee Dick Flaherty stopped the bout immediately at 1:49 after the knockdown. Up until the point of the knockdown, Kirk was fighting back, landing an occasional right hand. It was clear that he wasn’t in the same league as Macy, but he was fighting decent at the time. Macy looked excellent throughout, throwing triple hooks and nice combinations and showing good boxing skills.