MATT GODFREY vs EMMANUEL NWODO

You have to like the attitude of Matt Godfrey. The cruiserweight from Providence lost his unbeaten record in Germany in his last fight, but he isn’t complaining about it. Nor is he coming back in an easy fight. In fact, I think Godfrey is matched in a downright dangerous bout when he defends his NABF title against Emmanuel Nwodo, the Nigerian from Baltimore, in the 12-round main event on the penultimate show of the Friday Night Fights season.

Godfrey, 27, lost a close but unanimous decision to the unbeaten Rudolf Kraj, of the Czech Republic, in a WBC elimination bout in March. He is philosophical about it, looking on the loss as a learning experience.

“It was a close fight but he stuck to a very strict game plan, he didn’t make many mistakes, and he was successful,” Godfrey said over the phone from Providence on Monday. “Had the fight been here in the United States the outcome might have been different, but I can’t complain. There were some things I should have done better. I think I started a little slow, rounds one through four, I waited for him to make a mistake, whereas he didn’t.

“After the fourth I had to start pressing forward and making up for some of the ground that I lost. What I learned from that is to start a little faster and not sit around and wait for someone to make a mistake, because the mistake may never come and then you’ll be sitting there playing catch-up.”

Now he is focused on re-establishing himself against Nwodo, who has height and reach advantages as well as being the puncher in the fight.

“I have to do what I do best, that’s boxing and moving, and use some of his weaknesses to my strengths,” Godfrey said. “We’ve seen mistakes that he makes and I believe I have far more experience than he does. What we’re gonna do is do some things to make him uncomfortable, and I think boxing and moving will make him fairly uncomfortable in there.

“I’ve fought men who were a lot taller than me, sparred with guys a lot taller — I won’t be surprised by anything that comes at me on Friday night.

“Nwodo is going to come to fight. He wants to be champion as bad as I do. If I want to prove I’m the best cruiserweight in the world, and fight for a world title, I have to fight guys who have the same goal in mind as I do. Winning on Friday night — not just winning, but winning impressively — will get me the chance to fight for a world title.”

So, Godfrey has the proper perspective as he heads into this crucial fight, but Nwodo is bringing a fresh sense of purpose after suffering that spectacular knockout defeat against Darnell “Ding-A-Ling Man” Wilson 14 months ago. He looked good blowing out Ezra Sellers in January. True, he was meeting a faded veteran, but this was just the sort of win that Nwodo needed after the traumatic experience of the 11th-round KO loss to Wilson, when he got caught in a fight that he was winning.

We hear it all the time, but Nwodo’s manager, Adam Ainspan, really believes that the loss has made the Nigerian a better fighter. Nwodo went to train at Buddy McGirt’s gym in Vero Beach, FL, for the fight with Sellers and he has trained there again for this fight.

“To be honest, if he’d beaten Wilson and got a title fight he might not have been able to win it,” Ainspan said over the phone from Baltimore. “He might have thought he could get away with the things he had been doing, relying on strength and power. That defeat caused him to look at things differently. He went away to training camp rather than staying at home in Baltimore. We’ve studied the tapes. Corrections have been made.”

One change is that Nwodo is likely to be making greater use of his left jab. “He can control a fight with the jab,” Ainspan said. “It’s not just a jab to keep someone away or a range-finder, he can hurt people with his jab.

“He suffered a broken eye socket against Wilson. He thought it was from a head clash in the second or third round, and he was debilitated because of that. His vision was affected. I was proud of him that he did as well as he did.

“This fight is a challenge for both guys. We know Matt is an intelligent boxer, but Emmanuel’s a better-prepared fighter now than he would have been had he beaten Darnell. If Emmanuel keeps his head straight and pressures him with the jab I believe he has a really good chance.”

It seems, then, that Nwodo’s plan will be to use the jab and box steadily rather than go for the KO. This is likely to make him very hard to beat. If he went into the fight thinking purely along the lines of stopping Godfrey he could find himself being made to miss and getting hit by counters all night long.

Godfrey, of course, has to be considered the superior stylist. A long-time, top-level amateur (U.S. and national Golden Gloves champion, Pan American Games bronze medallist), Godfrey is capable of boxing with considerable skill. Nwodo, who used to box as a heavyweight, is the bigger, stronger, heavier-handed fighter and at 34 knows this is likely to be his last big opportunity and that he had better make the most of it.

I think that Godfrey, 27, realises where he went wrong in the fight with Kraj and I am expecting him to come out looking to score points early. His speed and mobility are big assets against a slower fighter such as Nwodo, but he is meeting a very good puncher and 12 rounds is a long way to go against someone who can crack as hard as the Nigerian. (BoxRec lists the bout as a 10-rounder but publicist Bob Trieger and promoter Jimmy Burchfield’s office both confirmed the 12-round distance on Monday).

Godfrey is boxing on home ground at the Mohegan Sun, which is an obvious advantage. I think that Godfrey’s slick moves can offset his opponent’s punching power — moving whenever Nwodo tries to get set to punch. Nwodo’s improved jab is a weapon to be respected but Godfrey has always impressed me as a fighter with excellent punch-anticipation. He was refreshingly honest about his loss in Germany, admitting that he could have fought a better fight. He can, I think, outmanoeuvre Nwodo and outpoint him, but this is a risky fight and I think it says a lot about Godfrey’s self-belief that he was willing to take it.