FORMER super-featherweight world champion Joe Cordina hasn’t had any luck since moving to lightweight but hopes that can change with a shot at the WBO title.
Cordina, 17-1 (9 KOs), beat Kenichi Ogawa in dramatic fashion to win the IBF’s 130lb strap in 2022 before going on to make two successful defences against Shavkat Rakhimov and Edward Vazquez. His reign ended last year with a stoppage loss to Anthony Cacace, leading him to move up to lightweight.
Last autumn, Cordina was set to fight WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson, but the American withdrew due to injury. Stevenson then faced Floyd Schofield, but when Schofield withdrew, Josh Padley stepped in as a late replacement. Cordina, sidelined, remained inactive.
Cordina returns after a 14-month layoff to face Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz (17-1, 13 KOs) for the vacant WBO Global belt on July 5, on the Catterall-Eubank undercard in Manchester.
In an interview with Boxing News, Cordina said he aims to use this fight to climb the WBO rankings and pursue his ambition of becoming a two-division world champion.
“I’m fighting for a WBO Global, so that is obviously going to put me higher in the rankings with the WBO, so I can only assume that is the route that we are going to go down,” Cordina said.
Following Keyshawn Davis’ antics earlier this month, the WBO strap is currently vacant. Since then a fight has been ordered between rising star Abdullah Mason, 19-0 (17 KOs), and hard-hitting Brit Sam Noakes, 17-0 (15 KOs), to crown a new champion.
Cordina believes Noakes could upset Mason, setting up an all-British WBO lightweight title fight – the first since Terry Flanagan defeated Derry Matthews in 2016.
“I believe that he [Noakes] can win that, quite comfortably as well if he gets the tactics right on the night, and then that would be a massive fight for Britain and for a world title.”
Cordina recently began training with Gary Lockett, who also trains Welsh featherweight Rhys Edwards. His July 5 fight marks a new chapter at lightweight.
