Is there any serious first hand reporting about the sparring history between these two ? You read the same basic conflicting stories .. with all the archive experts here does anyone have some deeper info on the topic ?
After Gene Tunney retired, a reporter asked Jack Dempsey about the remaining heavyweight contenders. His reply was: "The best fighter of the curent crop is the big negro George Godfrey".
I had read several accounts that Jack Dempsey had floored George Godfrey several times when Godfrey was a sparring partner for Dempsey preparing for Dempsey's bouts. Unfortunately I have never written down the sources or boxing writers quoted...But Dempsey feasted on the bigger men all through his career....
Theres lots of them. The newspapers covered the sparring well. I even have a letter from a guy, just some average joe, who visited Dempsey's camp in Great Falls in 1923 and wrote to his friend about it. He talks quite a bit about Godfrey. Its very interesting. He calls him "some man" and says if he werent black hed be champion for sure.
One of the more interesting stories I've heard is that during Dempsey's training camp for the Gibbons fight, Godfrey wanted to make a name for himself by giving the champ a beating and was really aggressive in the sparring, managing to bloody Dempsey's nose. This enraged Dempsey, who responded by breaking Godfrey's ribs. This cost Godfrey a big payday, as he was scheduled to fight on the undercard of Dempsey-Gibbons. I can't find any sources for this story, so I thought I'd post it here and see if anybody had information on whether or not it actually happened.
Godfrey is an enigma. He has too many DQs, some of which could have been intentional. He can be seen slightly ahead of Carnera until he went low and fouled out. It should be noted that Wills avoided Godfrey. I see Godfrey was a big man who could hit and had decent skills, but hes also a bit of an Andrew Golota type. Godfrey was the worst low blow artist of all time.
This is kind of a jumble of several stories. During Dempsey's training for Gibbons a story circulated that Godfrey had knocked Dempsey out. It was never substantiated because few people were there the day it supposedly happened. Dempsey denied it. About a month later, at the end of Dempsey's training camp Godfrey did miss the last couple of days of training due to a rib injury (some said it was a break, others said a strain). Godfrey may have missed a fight on the undercard of the Gibbons bout, I dont know, but he certainly missed out on a fight with Clem Johnson about a month or so later when he briefly left Dempsey's training camp for a fight with Johnson in Chicago but this was because he refused to fight unless he was paid first. He returned to camp and sparred with Dempsey until the Firpo bout.
for what it is worth, this is from Time Magazine 7-2-1923 -------------------------------------------------------------- "Jack Dempsey, responding to reports in the black press that he was KO'd while sparring with George Godfrey. 'If George Godfrey ever knocked me out, it must have been while I was asleep. He certainly never did it while I was awake. And never since he has been in camp has he shaken me up.'" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Godfrey was big and strong but considered slow and clumsy while in Dempsey's camp. Early on he had success with Dempsey and was able to land the right hand repeatedly but by the time they went Saratoga to train for Firpo Dempsey had Godfrey figured out and George couldnt hardly lay a hand on him. It should be remember that Godfrey was pretty inexperienced at this point. People know Im no Dempsey apologist but IMO Godfrey is ridiculously overrated.
Above all, Godfrey is an unknown quantity! His record suggests that he was nothing exceptional, but contemporary testimony, sometimes makes him out to be a 230lb Benny Leonard!
Godfrey's resume lacks big scalps of his era. He also lost many fights when stepping up and was Dq'd quite often. However when you look beneath the surface his ability was quite respected during the day, by his peers and their seems to be many allegations that he may have been easy to influence outside the ring to undermine his performance in the ring. He looks to be a solid contender on film against Carnera and he ran Sharkey close, I feel he should of achieved more. What transpired behind the scenes hampering his talents may never be totally unearthed.