Does anyone else think that Godfrey had a rediculous resume? He never fought the toughest of his era, including Dempsey, Baer and Louis. Edit: A Louis bout would've been extremely unlikely (Thank you Mcvey) However, he seemed to have fought just about everyone else, including many SHWs of the time, and boogeyman fighters that the top dogs rarely mixed it with. Also, he fought Sam Langford in his SECOND professional bout.
George Godfrey is a bit of an enigma to be honest. On paper he is nothing special, but his contemporaries just rave about him. With most fighters, the more you learn the clearer the picture becomes, but in his case it almost seems that the more you learn the more confusing the picture becomes!
A Dempsey fight would probably have been impossible considering the color line. A Baer fight would have been good albeit Godfrey old for a heavyweight by the time Baer was on top. Probably would have been champ in the 90s.
Godfrey was in that unfortunate position, where everybody knew that he was very dangerous, but it was within the discretion n of the champion to refuse him a title shot. I suspect that he frittered away his best years wearing the cuffs. After Tunney retired, Jack Dempsey named him as the best active heavyweight in the world, and he should have known.
Johnson looks bigger than Godfrey here. Do people overestimate the size difference of Johnson vs the SHWs?
There is probably a lot of guess work, regarding the size differences, between fighters from different eras. If a fighter is say 6'1'', 200 lbs, with a 75'' reach, then there are a lot of variants within those numbers!
Yeah. I think that version of Johnson may have been "bigger" than any version of Wilder that ever stepped in the ring.
