"He started slowing down in the third round," said Godfrey, who improved to 17-1 with his 10th knockout. "Even though he got some good shots on me, I knew he would slow down. My conditioning was good and I kept pressuring him."

Nwodo, who is 22-5 (18 KOs) and ranked ninth in the NABF, tried to make his presence felt right from the opening bell. Not only did he land more quality punches than Godfrey, but he delivered the bout's only knockdown with a right in the final seconds of the third that caused Godfrey to take a seat on the canvas. The knockdown hushed the local fight fans in attendance, but Godfrey shook it off.

"We just exchanged rights and my hand was out there when he caught me," said Godfrey. "It was a flash knockdown. He was more hurt than I was. I just happened to lose my balance."

But sensing that Nwodo was running out of the steam midway through that third, Godfrey went for the kill in the fourth, and less than two minutes later, Nwodo's night was done.

"After the fourth, fifth round of a fight, you can see what kind of a fighter someone is," remarked Godfrey. "I showed you what kind of fighter I was after the third round -- coming off the canvas, putting the pressure on him, and knocking out a guy with all the knockouts (he has)."

The fight was Godfrey's first in over fifth months and came after he lost a close 12-round unanimous decision to Rudolf Kraj in Germany in a World Boxing Council (WBC) title eliminator. Godfrey is currently ranked fifth in the WBC, while Nwodo is ranked 12th by the World Boxing Association (WBA) and 14th by the WBC.

Before Godfrey's victory, his good friend, heavyweight Jason "Big Six" Estrada, improved his record to 14-1 (3 KOs) by winning his eight-round "Special Attraction" bout with Dallas native and Texas state champion Domonic Jenkins (13-9-1, 6 KOs) by three scores of 79-73.

Estrada, a Providence native and member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team, needed to overcome a banged-up right wrist he dinged up in the second round by using his hand speed and landing some vicious punches to beat Jenkins, whose aside from a strong sixth round and a well-fought fifth, was outmatched by Estrada.

"The guy came to fight," admitted Estrada. "He tried to win for a while, but then he just tried to survive. I landed a lot of clean shots and I got hit with a couple, but I just rolled and moved away from them."

Estrada, who entered the fight ranked 11th in the NABF and NABO (North American Boxing Organization), might have unleashed more damage had his right hand not bother him for most of the final six rounds, and he blamed his woes on the Everlast gloves he wore for the fight.

"I definitely had a problem with the Everlast (gloves)," added Estrada, who prefers to wear Grant's gloves and spoke to the media with his hand in a large bucket of ice. "A couple of my body shots hurt him, but I wanted to really do was try to double. I wanted to throw the left and then the right, and if I can't throw the right the way I want to, they come off as one hard shot and one soft shot instead of one soft (shot) and one hard (shot)."