Welshman Joe Cordina is all about resilience, inside and outside of the prize ring.
Ludicrously stripped of the IBF super featherweight title he won in 2022 with a knockout of the year contender against Kenichi Ogawa, Cordina dutifully bounced back to reclaim it in a fight of the year candidate against Shavkat Rakhimov, who he defeated on points.
After dispatching Ogawa, the 31-year-old Cordina (16-0, 9 KOs) broke his right hand while in training for Rakhimov, who was then the IBF’s mandatory challenger. Instead of giving Cordina time to recover, the organisation declared the title vacant and put it on the line in a fight between Rakhimov and British fighter Zelfa Barrett.
Rakhimov stopped Barrett and then signed on to face Cordina in his maiden defence. When fight night arrived, on April 22 at the Cardiff International Arena, the fans certainly got their money’s worth.
WATCH: Joe Cordina vs. Edward Vazquez, live on DAZN
“I thought it was a great fight,” acknowledged Cordina in a recent interview with The Sporting News. “I’ve never got out of first gear in any of my fight apart from that one. It was good to show another side of my game, which not many people know about. Not many people knew that I could dig in, but I do it every day in the gym.
“It was one for the fans, especially those inside the arena, and it was a great atmosphere.”
Next up for the skilled boxer-puncher is a voluntary defence against Edward Vazquez at the Casino de Monte Carlo on November 4. The challenger from Fort Worth, Texas, has a record of 15-1 (3 KOs), but ironically his best performance came in his lone defeat to highly touted American hotshot Raymond Ford.
“A lot of people think [he beat Ford],” Cordina said. “I only watched a little bit of it, but Ford is a pot-shotter; he stands off, waits, waits, bang. He doesn’t put combinations together and he’s not a big geezer.
“I’m big and I’m a combination puncher. I can go forward and I can go backward. Size-wise, I’m going to be a lot bigger than [Vazquez]. I know size doesn’t mean a lot in boxing, but when you’ve got the pedigree I’ve got, the boxing brain I’ve got, the punch power I’ve got, the speed I’ve got, being big in that ring compared to your opponent does play a big part.”
While Cordina acknowledged that Vazquez is “tough, strong, and game”, he also believes that you have to be “special” to take his world title. Vazquez may not fit into that category, but there are some exceptional fighters in the 130-pound division and that was proven once again over the weekend.
On Saturday, WBC champion O’Shaquie Foster scored a dramatic 12th-round stoppage of Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez in Cancun, Mexico. The fight was already entertaining before a never-to-be-forgotten 11th round that saw both men brutally hurt on multiple occasions.
This interview with Cordina was conducted prior to that fight taking place. At that time, when he was asked about possible unification matchups, the Cardiff man did not sound hopeful.
“I was trying to make the Foster fight, but (promoter) Eddie [Hearn] was saying the revenue isn’t there and that it’s not a big money fight,” said Cordina. “If we’re saying stuff like that, then what do we do? What can I do?
“Of course [Foster would be a bigger fight over here]. No one knew who he was, even with the world title, until he was having a back-and-forth with me on Twitter. He’ll say nobody knows who I am over there, but, at the same time, nobody knew who he was over there… only in Texas. It’s irrelevant because no promoter will want to put that fight on and pay both of us big money.”
Following Foster’s showing against Hernandez at the weekend, the American’s star has unquestionably risen. If Cordina can shine on Saturday, then hopefully a unification match can be made for early next year, as both fighters are elite-level, unbeaten, and in their prime.
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However, if Cordina is unable to secure a matchup with “Ice Cold” Foster, then a tantalising domestic showdown with former WBA featherweight champ Leigh Wood is another solid option.
Wood is coming off a dramatic, come-from-behind stoppage of former two-time featherweight champion Josh Warrington. There’s been plenty of talk about a rematch between the pair although Wood will now be campaigning at super featherweight.
Will we see Wood vs. Warrington 2 or Cordina vs. Wood 1?
“You’d need to ask Leigh Wood [what he wants to do], he holds the card for that rematch,” Cordina acknowledged. “But when it comes to a fight with myself, I’ll take it at the drop of a hat. Someone told me he’d come up to fight me, so if he said it, then it should be an easy fight to make.
“[In the first fight], Warrington was winning pretty much every round, then Wood caught him falling over his front foot. Leigh hit him with a couple of shots, capitalised, almost got him out of there, and then eventually did. The referee? You can’t really blame the ref, he seen what he seen, and [Warrington] wasn’t on steady legs and didn’t turn around straight away. I don’t think he would have recovered.”
Whether it’s Foster, Wood, or someone else, fight fans can look forward to more magic from “The Welsh Wizard” provided he makes Vazquez a memory on Saturday night.