By Mark Eisner: Unbeaten Joe Cordina (16-0, 9 KOs) used his pot shot style of fighting mixed with movement & roughhouse tactics to dethrone previously unbeaten IBF super featherweight champion Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (17-1-1, 14 KOs) by a twelve-round split decision on Saturday night at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
The judges’ scores were 116-111 for Rakhimov, 115-112, and 114-113 for Cordina. Boxing News 24 had Cordina edging it 114-113.
The fight was difficult to score because Cordina was getting machine-gunned with combinations from Rakhimov the entire contest and did a lot of moving & holding in the championship rounds, making it challenging to give Cordina more than one round in the fight’s second half.
Cordina, 31, was at his most potent in the first half of the fight, as he dropped Rakhmov down in the second round and had him hurt. However, Cordina was hurt in the fifth round by a long right hand from Rakhimov, which took much of the fight out of him.
In the second half of the contest, Cordina mostly threw potshots, moved, clinched, and roughed up Rakhimov.
Rakhimov had to deal with a cut over his left eye in the second half of the fight, but his corner controlled the bleeding well.
In the 12th, Cordina ran for the last 15 seconds of the round, conceding it to Rakhimov. It was a risky thing to do by Cordina because he could have lost the fight if the contest had been closer.
Undercard results:
- Sandy Ryan (6-1, 2 KOs) defeated Maria Pier Houle (8-1-1, 2 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision to capture the vacant WBO world female welterweight title. The scores were 97-93, 98-92, and 99-91.
- British lightweight champion Gavin Gwynne (16-2-1, 4 KOs) stopped Craig Woodruff (12-7-1, 4 KOs) in the fifth round in their rematch tonight. Gwynee trapped Woodruff up against the ropes and unloaded a storm of heavy shots, resulting in the referee stepping in and halting the contest. The two had fought to a 12-round draw last September.
- Super featherweight Zelfa Barrett (29-2, 16 KOs) returned to his winning ways, beating Jason Sanchez (16-4, 9 KOs) by a tougher-than-expected twelve-round unanimous decision. The scores were 116-111, 118-110, and 119-108. Sanchez had recently been beaten by Adam Lopez, Christopher Diaz, and Oscar Valdez more thoroughly than we saw tonight. Barrett was coming off a ninth-round knockout loss to Rakhimov last November. Like in that fight, Barrett gassed out in the later rounds tonight and was fortunate that Sanchez lacked the power to finish him as Rakhimov had done. “I think it was a world-class performance from a world-class fighter,” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn after the fight, praising Barrett. “Sometimes you learn so much from defeats. He lost that fight in a great fight. He could have won that fight and would have been [IBF super featherweight] world champion, but in losing, he realized how good he was, and you saw that tonight.” For the record, Barrett couldn’t have beaten Rakhimov because he gassed out after seven rounds and was getting beaten up from round eight. The fight had to be stopped in the ninth to save Barrett.
- Cruiserweight prospect Jordan Thompson (15-0, 12 KOs) stopped Luke Watkins (16-3, 11 KOs) in the sixth round. Thompson knocked the overmatched Watkins twice with shots to the body to get the knockout.
Rakhimov-Cordina preview
“I don’t want no excuses when I get him out of there,” said Joe Cordina to DAZN Boxing.
“It’s a big secret. My coach, he know,” said Rakhimov about how he’s going to defeat Cordina. “The boxing ring is the same regardless of the country. It looks the same and has the same size. This does not bother me at all. I just need to show up and do my job.
“The result of the fight will not depend on the referee’s decision.
“It will be very tough for him to fight me,” Rakhimov said about the 31-year-old Cordina. “I am an intelligent and thinking boxer who always who always thinks of each move and each punch in advance. I have been training with the best general Freddie Roach.
“It does not matter how many rounds I have to face. I still need to keep up with the plan and the strategy of our team. We won’t tell this plan to anyone else. It is a great secret for everyone.
“I like his aggressiveness,” said Roach about Rakhimov. “He’s a good puncher, he has good power with the left and right hand both. Being at home is great but sometimes being away is good also because you don’t have a lot of pressure on you. It can work both ways obviously, but the same thing, the best fighter will win.
“This is everything. This is the world title It gets no bigger than this, and he’s just in our way.
“Rakhimov is an Eastern European fighter. He’s extremely talented, a good world champion, and it’s going to take a lot of beating,” said Eddie Hearn. “He has a great work rate, he doesn’t stop, and that’s the danger. He’ll walk you down, walk you down and try and outwork.
Unbeaten IBF super featherweight champion Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (17-0-1, 14 KOs) defends his title tonight against the bitter ex-IBF champ Joe Cordina (15-0, 9 KOs) in the twelve-round main event at the Cardiff International Arena, in Cardiff, Wales.