Joe Cordina is done stressing over the circumstances that left him as an ex-titleholder.
The only focus now is to become a two-time title claimant and to re-establish himself as the face and voice of Welsh boxing.
The unbeaten former IBF junior lightweight titlist is favored by a considerable margin to regain his belt, which is currently held by Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov. The two meet this Saturday atop a DAZN show from Cardiff International Arena in Cordina’s hometown of Cardiff, Wales.
A home crowd and -300 betting odds (according to bet365 sportsbook) look good on paper. There is also the insistence that Cordina should still have the belt that many felt was unceremoniously removed from his possession.
None of that will matter once the two make their way to the ring this Saturday.
“He’s a world champion at the end of the day,” Cordina acknowledged of Tajikistan’s Rakhimov. “I’ve seen him. He’s tough, he’s strong, he’s fit. But I believe that I have that little bit more that he doesn’t have to beat me.
“The anthems and performances are all good on the night. First and foremost, we have to get that win. We need that win to bring big nights of boxing back to Cardiff, like Joe Calzaghe did.”
Cordina (15-0, 9KOs) was on his way following a highlight reel second-round knockout of Kenichi Ogawa last June 4 in Cardiff. The win saw the unbeaten Welshman claim the IBF belt which he was prepared to next defend versus Rakhimov (17-0-1, 14KOs) as his mandatory challenger.
Plans for their November 5 clash in Abu Dhabi vanished with the first punch thrown by Cordina in training camp last summer. He broke his hand, which came after he’d already previously filed a medical exception with the IBF to recover from a separate injury. Without any remaining appeals, Cordina was forced to let go of the belt which Rakhimov claimed in a ninth-round knockout of Zelfa Barrett on the November 5 Abu Dhabi card.
Fully healed, Cordina is now prepared to enter a second reign and usher in a new era of boxing in his home country.
“That was always my plan when I came into pro boxing, when Joe retired,” Cordina said of the legacy left behind by Wales’ Calzaghe, a Hall of Fame two-division champ who retired undefeated. “We saw Lee Selby become world champion (at featherweight) but he never really cemented this as his home as a fighter.
“That’s what I want to do. After that last win we had last June, that was the start. We had a bit of a brick. So now, I get this title back on Saturday and that’s the start. That’s when all the big fights will start happening once again.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox