Joe Cordina reclaimed his IBF Super Featherweight World title in the Welsh capital last night, the title he lost outside the ring after defeating Kenichi Ogawa last year. Cordina (16-0, 9 KOs) took the split decision win, defeating Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov to become a two-time world champion.
Promoter Eddie Hearn spoke exclusively to ProBox TV News moments after the big night for Welsh boxing.
“It was really good.” Hearn said. “It’s nice when it actually means something to these cities we come to. It clearly did tonight, not just in the city, but in the country.
“They got a really good fighter in Joe Cordina. I think the two question marks over the years were, does he punch hard enough? Is he tough enough? I think the last two fights have shown there is a big tick in both boxes.”
Cordina and Rakhimov put on quite the display, as they went toe-to-toe for 12 rounds, for the 5000 in attendance at the Cardiff International Arena last night.
“When you got someone like Rakhimov, you can’t just let them continuously walk you down.” Hearn continued. “You have to stop him in his tracks, and Joe did that quite early. Obviously he dropped him [in the 2nd round] which changed the momentum of the fight, and obviously he got himself hurt in the fight, it was just a real war of attrition in the end.”
Naturally, talk turns towards who is next for Cordina. In the post fight press conference the talk of unification was mentioned. However, we could possibly see one of Hearn’s stable move up a weight class to challenge the two-time world champion.
“You have O’Shaquie Foster, the WBC champion and [Emanuel] Navarrete. Navarrete is a good fight as well, that could be a good fight in the US. We will see what is next.”
The judges were split, with two scoring in favour of the Welshman. The general consensus was that Cordina did more than enough to take the decision.
“It was a close fight, but 116-111 to Rakhimov, I could never see it.” Hearn added. “I was just pleased to see the final card was 114-113, which was very tight. I had Joe by two or three rounds.I was just pleased to get the decision.”
Cordina sold-out in his hometown last night. Hearn and his charge have outgrown the city’s arena, but Cardiff offers some exciting venue options for the new champion’s defense.
“We want to go anywhere it really means something. Joe was talking about [Cardiff] Castle, we will see.”
