[BigBoyBrackey]

George Godfrey (11) W12 Young Stribling (6): Stribling boxes smartly throughout, but Godfrey lands the harder punches and more of them, particularly in dominating rounds seven through 10. Neither fighter goes down, but Stribling’s right eye begins swelling in the fourth, with Godfrey’s left starting to puff a round later.

Godfrey works effectively to the body, forcing Stribling into exchanges along the ropes, where The Leiperville Shadow’s immense size advantage comes into play. Seemingly needing a knockout going into the 12th, Stribling nearly delivers, trapping the exhausted Godfrey in a neutral corner and firing away until the final bell. The split verdict, though, is controversial only because one judge preferred Stribling in a fight in which Godfrey seemed to clearly win at least seven rounds. Godfrey prevails 115-113, 113-115, 116-112.

Max Schmeling (4) W12 Tuffy Griffiths (13): Griffiths comes out looking to take advantage of Schmeling’s reputation as a slow starter, peppering The Black Uhlan with jabs and crosses up top and straight rights to the body. Though Griffiths piles up points through the first two frames, he lacks the power to do any serious damage.

Schmeling starts to assert himself in the third, using his jab to keep Griffiths on the outside. Jabs to the body and hooks to the jaw hurt Tuffy in the third and fourth. Even after he gets back inside in rounds five and six, Griffiths looks to get the worst of both tightly contested rounds.

After a close, but slow, seventh, Griffiths has his best round in the eight, scoring big with a pair of uppercuts in the final minute that force Schmeling into preservation mode and hang on until the bell. Things slow down in the ninth and 10th and, after Griffiths spends whatever he has left in the 11th, the two arm-weary fighters slog their way to the final bell.

As in the evening’s first fight, the scoring is closer than it looked to many at ringside, with Schmeling eking out a split decision by scores of 115-113, 113-115 and 116-115, with differing views of rounds six and 10 – each of which looked like clear rounds for Max – accounting for the divergence.