AS an amateur Joe Cordina won the European championships and competed for Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games. He is already 3-0 (3) as a professional, boxing next at York Hall on September 1 against Jamie Speight.
How have all your preparations been for your fourth pro fight?
All good. Just learning, progressing, taking each fight as it comes. It’s an enjoyable camp and I’m looking forward to Friday.
Has it been hard being in a new place and a new gym?
With team GB you’re going back to houses with the lads, I’m now going back on my own chilling. I’m just on my own basically. It’s a bit tougher. It’s more that camp feel, that I’m in a training camp, I’ve got to concentrate on what I’m doing. I’m eating, I’m sleeping, I’m training and I’m doing that two or three times a day. I’ve got two young daughters now and I miss them badly through the week. I just crack on. I knew everything I’m doing is for them. It just motivates me to push on.
Is training with Tony Sims different from what you were doing before?
He’s gone back to basic things. For instance the jab, working on the jab and making sure it’s fast as it comes out, no lazy jabs. Pinging the jab and defending while I’m throwing the jab as well. There’s one example. Head movement – instead of big head movement you only need to make them miss half an inch. That half an inch and counter as quickly as possible. So I’m working on head movement, being cuter on the inside. That wasn’t really my game as an amateur. It was more box and move but I’m comfortable in the pocket, fighting up close. When I’m sparring I’m sparring Conor Benn, Ricky Burns, Ohara Davies and they’re a lot heavier than me. Me being comfortable fighting in close with them and I’m improving on my inside fighting and I’m getting stronger with that.
Have you been sparring with Jorge Linares?
I’ve been sparring Linares. It was enjoyable. It was good experience. It was quite cagey my first spar with him… He knew where he was in the ring at all time.
You’ve boxed twice in stadiums, what was Wembley in particular like?
How can that be topped? The only time that could be topped is if I fought in Cardiff in the Principality stadium. When I boxed at Wembley I opened the show. Opening the show for Anthony Joshua was unbelievable.
Nerve-wracking at all?
You know what, I thought I was going to be flapping but actually there wasn’t one bit of nerves. Even in Bramall Lane, I did not have one bit of nerves. The most I was nervous for was my debut and I wasn’t that bad [at the Echo Arena].
