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04/23/2007 Archived Entry: "Matt Godfrey: Calm, Cool and Collecting Belts"
Matt Godfrey: Calm, Cool and Collecting Belts
Will “Too Smooth” Cruise To The Top?
A CBZ Exclusive by J.D. Vena
If a city like Boston is a baseball town, and Phladelphia is a football town, it’s almost fair to say that Providence, RI has become somewhat of a boxing city. Providence, a small state capital city I might add, used to just be a hot spot that entertained, fed well and hosted some early career bouts of Rocky Marciano, Willy Pep and Marvin Hagler. Today, however, it is now home to some of the better known boxers of New England that have surfaced on the fistic landscape.
Once there used to be the warrior and television favorite, Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Paz, who was actually from neighboring Cranston, a town known to few southern New Englanders or anyone that has memorized the lines from Dumb & Dumber. Since the beginning of the new millennium, native sons, Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey, Peter Manfredo, Jr. and Jason “Big Six” Estrada, all of whom began boxing at Manfredo’s Gym when they were all very young, have emerged as hopefuls to the region of a now popular sport, thanks in part to their impressive accomplishments.
For years there had been some welcomed invaders from nearby New Bedford, MA, the tough CompuBox phenom, “Sucra” Ray Oliveira, ESPN action star and a potentially interesting movie study, Scott “The Sandman” Pemberton as well as former USBA super bantamweight champ, Jason “School Boy” Pires, boxers that had fared very well over the last dozen years. The Providence boxing scene had also prompted Jaime “The Hurricane” Clampitt, one of the world’s best female boxers to immigrate to the surrounding area to further her own career. But for quite some time, the city itself has never been native to fighters of this talent, despite being a home away from home for a number of local southern New England boxers. In fact, you’d probably have to go as far back as Ralph “The Ripper” Zanelli, a 1940’s adaptation of the Lowell, MA liver killer, “Irish” Micky Ward, before could envision a Providence fighter or two that may actually capture a recognized world title belt.
The one who may be the most promising of the bunch may not be the individual who recently suffered and unsatisfying controversial TKO loss in Wales, Peter Manfredo. Thus far, in a very short period of time, native son, Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey has been gathering recognizable minor belts over decent opposition and has really opened eyes in and outside of New England without the benefits of reality television. His most recent effort a few weeks back was perhaps the most alarming to the 200 pound men who seek cruiserweight supremacy. On the May 6th ESPN’s Friday Night Fights main event at The Mohegan Sun Arena, Godfrey disposed of top contender, Felix “Bad News” Cora in precise and devastating fashion with a second round TKO.
In that groundbreaking fight, he opened that bout as a right handed boxer, a stance that some of his followers have begun to sense that he intends to attempt for a quick knockout rather outbox from his slick southpaw stance. In the first round, Godfrey moved forward wearing a mask of relaxed confidence as if he were attempting to hang a framed portrait on a wall, not engage in a nationally televised boxing match. During this frame, Godfrey found that the possible openings or opportunities weren’t worth discovering if they were available. But late in the second round as he had already seemed to figure out the well tested Cora, Godfrey found his spot from a right handed point of view. The 26 year old moving into the ropes but kept his right foot planted and let loose a quick chopping right hook to the temple of Cora. The dazed Cora may have already been on his way to the canvas but not before Godfrey’s instinctive punches, a left hook and a looping right uppercut, found their mark on Cora’s head during his quick fall to the mat. Had Cora fell to his right, Godfrey’s final flurry of the knockdown sequence probably would have ended with a double left hand combination. The sequence of punches just looked that natural to him.
It was the kind of stuff that has now facilitated a general belief among the boxing insiders that supports the notion that this young aspiring cruiserweight from Providence has a chance to collect some potentially lucrative paydays, if not one or more of the world title belts he covets.
In beating Cora, Godfrey now 15-0 with 9 KO’s, added the better known NABF title as well as the NABA title belt to his expanding collection. Last year he had previously won the WBC Continental Americas title with a controlling but closely fought 12-round decision over tough Danny Batchelder. Earlier last year he won the WBC’s USNBC championship in devastating fashion with a picturesque knockout, courtesy of a well-timed straight right hand in the first round. The victim, then unbeaten Shaun George, recently lost a 12-round decision to top contending knockout artist, Alexander Gurov.
Though Godfrey is not considered a knockout artist, his reactive timing and understanding of the game has made him a danger during any moment he’s in the ring. For Godfrey boxing seems to have come quite natural but only from a work ethic and interest that began under the most unlikely of circumstances.
“We were all just 11-year old kids,” recalls Godfrey. “It was one of those stupid situations where a dumb argument escalated into a fight. It might have been something as meaningless as whose dog is tougher. Anyway, the argument was with my friend Jason Estrada who was on his way to the boxing gym. Had there not been a lot of other kids around who added to the hostility, nothing might have happened but I wasn’t going to back down even though Jason was bigger than me. We got into a fight and Jason’s father broke it up after about 30 seconds. After the fight, I went to the recreation center, while Jason and all the other kids went to the boxing gym. I was all alone at the rec center and I thought the next day, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. It was two days after Christmas in 1992 that I began boxing.”
The basic mechanics developed quickly for Godfrey thanks to his interest, pride, the talent at the gym and an injury that was sustained a couple of years after he began learning the trade that in hindsight may have been fortuitous.
“When I first started boxing, I was just a right handed fighter, but I ended up breaking my left index finger right before the summer began,” remembers Godfrey. “I didn’t want to take a summer off and get out of shape on account of a finger so I decided to work on my right hand and I started boxing from a lefty stance, practicing the right jab and hook. Not too long after the finger healed, I was in a fight with my first southpaw. I was boxing righty and (my opponent) kept hitting me with awkward uppercuts. In the next round I switched to southpaw and completely through him off. After that, I believed I could switch and fight just as effectively from either side.
Indeed, in his final participation of the New England Golden Glove Regional Championships in February 2003, your writer remembers his title winning effort very clearly. Fellow finalist Eric Shanks of the Vermont region had defeated Tyrone Smith in the semi’s and had the look of a bruising tough guy with a heavy punch. But in the first round, the extremely calm Godfrey timed Shanks’ left jab with a counter right hook that sent Shanks face-first for an unnecessary count. The punch was so quick that many ringsiders didn’t see the knockout blow. I just happened to not have blinked. Had now undefeated Connecticut heavyweight, Tony Grano not have pulled out of his semi-final bout with Godfrey with car trouble, Godfrey may have snagged the Thomas F. Costello Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the tournament’s most outstanding boxer. Having only one fight in the final tournament likely hurt his chances of winning that trophy but with respect to Grano, he was better off not having reliable set of wheels the previous night.
The following year, Godfrey skipped the Golden Gloves to compete in the 2004 Everlast U.S. Nationals which he won, qualifying him for the Olympic Trials. Godfrey was defeated in the Olympic Trials by rivals Devin Vargas, the Olympic representative and now fellow cruiserweight contender as well as heavyweight contender Chazz Witherspoon, opponents he had beaten before. Godfrey didn’t discourage easily following his defeats.
Two months later, Godfrey turned pro under Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports banner, on the Peter Manfredo - Anthony Bonsante main event, prior to their inclusion of the popular first Contender series. Since then, his career has taken off just as he had envisioned and less than three years later, Godfrey is nearing the top of the division.
“When I was a 16 years old and won my second national title, I thought this is what I’d be doing when I got older. I just didn’t see myself doing anything else.”
The confident Godfrey as well as many other believers, feels that a world title opportunity is right around the corner, which would be the second afforded to a native fighter from Providence in a long time. Recently, Godfrey’s friend and stable mate, Peter Manfredo, Jr., who adopted the catchy moniker, “The Pride of Providence,” received his first world title shot against longtime WBO champion Joe Calzaghe of Wales. Late in the third round of an uneventful fight the Welshman began reigning a flurry of quick shots, most of which were landing on the gloves of the young Manfredo, when suddenly referee Terry O’Connor controversially stopped the fight because Peter wasn’t throwing back. The ugly ending to the bout caused reason for concern for any who elect to cross the big pond to snatch his world title.
For Godfrey, he may also be in the same dilemma as all of the current champs are non-American. The WBC and WBA champion, Jean-Marc Mormeck of France, exacted revenge against O’Neill Bell, with a controversial decision win last month after he was allowed an additional 30 seconds to recover from a right hand that left him all but senseless at the closing moments of the 6th round. IBF champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk is native to Poland and fights exclusively on his home soil. His split decision win over Philadelphia’s Steve “U.S.S” Cunningham was also reported as being controversial. Lastly, WBO champ, Enzo Maccarinelli is from Wales, where Godfrey’s pal Manfredo seemed to get the short end of the stick in spite of the fact that he may have been in over his head going into the bout. However, entertaining the idea of winning world titles in these foreign, protective lands doesn’t seem faze Godfrey when considering what he hopes to be up against.
“When you’re not the champion, you shouldn’t have a say where the fight takes place regardless of how much you bring to the table,” Godfrey told the CBZ. “I have no problems going to other countries to fight for a title. When you’re not the champion, the deck is stacked against you when the other guy has the belt and if you have to go to his back yard to get the belt then so be it. You have to take the title regardless of where the fight is. That’s how it should be.”
Though the world title terrain could change in the next year in what looks to be a increasingly popular division, Godfrey remains confident that if he keeps winning impressively, he will be fighting for a world title in the near future. Recently, he called out every top cruiserweight in the division and if one of them with the a world title belt bites, then the city of Providence, a city that now appreciates its boxing and hometown heroes, may finally claim their very own world champion.
Photo by Emily Harney courtesy of Bob Trieger's Full Court Press
