number1contender.net

ESPN Friday Night Fights Recap

April 6, 2007

Mohegan Sun Arena-Uncasville, Connecticut

NABA and NABF Cruiserweight (200 pounds)12-Round Match:

Matt Godfrey (14-0, 8 KO's, 199.75 pounds) vs. Felix Cora, Jr. (18-1-2,9 KO's, 196 pounds)

Both men prior to the fight claim they are the best cruiserweight boxers in the world. If there was a world cruiserweight title for hyperbole, Cora would have it won with his pre-fight interview. The statements he was making about the importance of this fight were ridiculous. Then he threw in as many sports cliches as possible to finish out his portion of the interview. Godfrey sees this fight as his way towards a title shot. Cora fights southpaw, but is right hand dominant outside the ring. The two boxers roomed together at one point during their amateur careers. Godfrey is ranked in the top ten by all of boxing's sanctioning bodies in the cruiserweight division.

Teddy Atlas' keys to victory are:

For Godfrey, keep his distance using his superior size and use his straight right hands down the middle when available.

For Cora, push forward and get inside. Then, throw a body punch followed by a head punch.

As the match begins, Godfrey breaks out something unexpected. Godfrey, takes up the southpaw stance. Godfrey wins round 1, 10-9. Godfrey's punches though do not have the power on them they usually do and he appears a bit uncomfortable in the stance. It appears designed mostly to confuse Cora right now rather than really aid Godfrey in a quick finish at this point. In fact, it negates some of Godfrey's best offense to use the southpaw stance. It worked for round 1, though. Godfrey opens round 2 again in the lefty stance. Cora has been out of the ring for eleven months coming off the sole loss of his career. The punch output for a usually very busy fighter, in Cora, is way down. Cora's pants, are also falling down. Speaking of falling down, that's what just happened to Cora with the aid of a Godfrey left. At the count of 9 Cora stands up to answer the referee's count and it was a very generous nine. Cora was so slow to his feet it could have easily been 10, but the referee used his discretion. Now, Cora has to go a full 30 seconds to make it to the sanctity of his corner and that is not a sure thing. Cora just tried to cover up and last out the round never throwing a punch since, standing up. The referee is wisely stepping in to end the fight. Most of Godfrey's punches that lead to the stoppage were landing on Cora's gloves or arms and doing little damage, but Cora had just stopped fighting. It was a good call by the referee to step in when he did and, excellent job done by him.

In the biggest fight of Godfrey's career, he fights an unorthodox strategy to say the least and knocks out his opponent in round 2. The knockdown, actually came when Godfrey had his back against the ropes, and returned to his orthodox stance to score with bigger punches. Here is the official decision: At 2:45 of the second round and new NABF and still NABA Cruiserweight Champion of the World, Matt Godfrey.