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Godfrey Ready for Prime Time

By Thomas Gerbasi (Aug 7. 2007)

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After being thisclose to earning a berth on the 2000 and 2004 United States Olympic teams but falling short, Matt Godfrey, a six-time amateur national champion, knows plenty about counting your chickens before they hatch and about letting dreams getting in the way of reality.

So now, as an unbeaten pro, if you ask him about possibly looking past an opponent that, on paper, may not look like a killer, he will quickly put any questions to rest about his motivation.

“The guys that everybody else looks down upon are the guys that you have to look out for because they’re gunning for you now,” said the 15-0 Godfrey, who faces 13-2-3 Derrick Brown Friday night in his home state of Rhode Island. “I know this kid is gonna train his heart out. He knows he’s coming to my hometown and it’s for the NABF title and I know he’s gonna do anything he can to win that. Those are the guys you’ve got to watch out for. Those guys are sometimes hungrier than the people that are ahead of you, just like I was hungrier than Felix Cora, Shaun George, and Danny Batchelder.”

Ever since turning pro, the 26-year old cruiserweight has fought as if he’s got the meter running. A slick boxer with deceptive power that lives up to his nickname of “Too Smooth” in the ring, Godfrey (owner of a reported 194-23 amateur slate) hasn’t taken any shortcuts, hasn’t played around on the tomato can circuit, and hasn’t shied away from challenges that prospects usually don’t go near.

“It just seemed to work out that way,” said Godfrey. “With the progression I’ve gotten with my first four, five fights, we felt like we ready to take a step, and our first big step fight was fighting a veteran and former NABO champion, Jermell Barnes in just my eighth fight. And I went eight rounds with him and barely got touched the whole fight, so that gave me the confidence to step up to ten rounds and work my way in in the (Willie) Herring fight. I went ten rounds without a problem and boxed well, so from there on out, I’m accustomed to the professional style and its pretty much ‘bring on anybody.’”

Yet while he’s obviously confident in his ability, Godfrey doesn’t come off as cocky, and if you look at his record, there’s reason why there’s a buzz around him after less than 20 fights, as he has beaten veterans Ernest Mateen, Lloyd Bryan, Danny Batchelder, and prospects Shaun George and Felix Cora Jr. in his last five fights, with only Batchelder fortunate enough to hear the final bell.

It’s been an impressive run to say the least, but unfortunately, Godfrey is a cruiserweight, which might as well equate to being the best water polo player in Brooklyn.

“If I were in the welterweight division or one of the hot divisions, it would be difficult for me with 15 fights because those divisions are so deep,” he admits. “So I believe I’m in the perfect division to have that kind of buzz. I’m number two in the WBC with 15 fights. I believe I’m in the best division for it. When anybody talks about the cruiserweight division, there are less than eight names people can name off the top of their head and I’m beginning to be one of those guys. So I feel good about that. I love the division that I’m in.”

He’s honest, mature, and can fight??? This guy could give boxing a good name.

“I would like to,” he laughs. “As long as I keep the win column nice and high and the loss column low, we can definitely do it.”

And when Godfrey says “we”, he means it, as from the time he was a youngster, he’s been surrounded by people who have guided him and molded him into the man he is today.

“Growing up, I had so many father figures in my life, not to mention my father being home every single night when I went home,” said Godfrey. “My mother and father are still together in the same little project apartment, and I always came home to my father. And as much as I always thought he was wrong, he was right when I look back at it now. (Laughs) So I had a lot of guidance from positive males at every stage of my life. My promoter is a really good friend of mine, my manager is almost like my best friend, the guy who brought me up as a trainer from the time I was 12 until now, Dr. Rolando Estrada, was like another father to me. So I always had all the positive males in my life and I looked up to them and what they were doing.”

He’s also watched what his peers have done, and he got an up close and personal look at how fickle the media could be by watching the treatment received by 2004 Olympian Jason Estrada, who Godfrey has been friends with since the two were in first grade together.

“Take a couple of seconds and think before you say anything because once you speak, it can’t be taken back,” said Godfrey when asked what he learned from seeing Estrada get slammed in the press for statements he made after losing in the Athens Games. “And I’m sure there may have been things he said in the past that he didn’t have any intention of them being taken the way they were taken, and that hurt him. People looked down upon him for some of the things he said in the past and he didn’t mean anything by them. I’ve known him since I was a kid and I know the kind of person he is. He’s the nicest person in the world and a lot of people don’t know him – they only know him by the comments he may have made to the media in the past. So that lets me know – think before you speak, take a second or two before you let it out because it can come back to hurt you.”

Right now though, the only hurt in Godfrey’s life is what he’s dishing out to his opponents, and with a current number two ranking in the WBC and a number four in the IBF, ‘Too Smooth’s next foe after this Friday may be with a champion. Does he prefer WBC boss Jean Marc-Mormeck (who faces David Haye later this year) or IBF champ Steve Cunningham?

“Whoever’s willing to give me the opportunity,” he said. “I don’t have a preference of saying I think I’d do better against this guy than that guy. I feel, in my heart, that I’m the best cruiserweight in the world and I have to believe that before anybody else will. And since I feel that way, so it doesn’t matter which world title holders are out there – whoever I get the opportunity to be in there with, that’s the guy I want.”

But after less than 20 fights, is Matt Godfrey ready for prime time?

“Absolutely,” he says without hesitation. “I’ve been boxing for more than 15 years, I’ve got so much experience with different styles and everything, and I’m finally used to the pace of the pros, so I don’t believe I’d have a problem with any of the world title holders now.”

So he’s not about to look past Derrick Brown.

“It makes me train harder and makes me run extra, knowing that I have to look good against someone who’s not supposed to do good against me,” he said. “This makes me train just as hard as if I’m fighting for a world title.”