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By Charles Brun: Fresh off his highly controversial 12 round split decision win over Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov last April, IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina (16-0, 9 KOs) will face 126-lb contender Edwin Vazquez (15-1, 3 KOs) in a 12 round bout on November 4th at the Casino de Monte Carlo. The event will be shown on DAZN

It’s unknown why Matchroom Boxing has selected the 27-year-old Vazquez from the featherweight division for Cordina to defend against rather than picking a contender from the 130-lb division, as the American isn’t ranked in the top 15 in that weight class.

Vazquez, with his 20% KO rate, isn’t a big enough puncher for him to be campaigning in the super featherweight division, and he’d be much better off fighting at 126, where his lack of power won’t handicap him as much.

Cordina didn’t look good against Rakhimov in Cardiff, Wales, five months ago. Charles Brun had the visiting fighter Rakhimov winning eight rounds to four.

However, two of the judges who worked the fight gave it to the hometown fighter Cordina by the scores 114-113 (Phil Edwards) and 115-112 (Pawel Kardyni), while the third had it for Rakhimov by a 116-111 (Alex Levin) margin.

That judge appeared to get it right, but I don’t know what happened with the other two had it upside down, giving it to Cordina, who was getting royally hammered all night by Rakhimov.

What’s really interesting about Matchroom using the Fort Worth, Texas native Edward Vazquez as Cordina’s opponent is that he receiving end up a controversial 10 round split decision loss to Raymond Ford last year in February.

This writer had Vazquez beating the A-side fighter Ford 8-2, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Ideally, there should have been a rematch between Ford and Vazquez to clear up the controversy. It never happened.

Vazquez has looked like pure 24K gold ever since, winning his last four fights in one-sided fights showing that his loss to Ford hasn’t caused him to lose confidence.

Many of the boxing fans who saw that fight had Vazquez winning comfortably, and they felt it was a robbery. Matchroom promotes Raymond Ford, and Eddie Hearn is high on him, feeling that he’s got the talent to scoop up the WBA featherweight title once Leigh Wood retires after his Josh Warrington on October 7th in Sheffield.

November 4th undercard fights:

• Sivenathi Nontshinga vs. Adrian Curiel Dominguez
• Souleymane Cissokho vs. Isaias Lucero
• Julissa Alejandra Guzman vs. Ramla Ali

Female super bantamweight Ramla Ali is coming off an eighth round knockout win over Julissa Alejandra Guzman last June. This is a risky move on the 33-year-old Ramla’s part to be getting back in there with Guzman in a rematch because she was getting worked over the entire fight, not just the eighth round.

Guzman had too much power for Rama, and that will not change in the rematch unless she undergoes a sudden transformation overnight as we saw with Conor Benn going from a non-puncher to a knockout artist.

Ramla isn’t young, so it’s unlikely that she’ll be able to improve her power enough to avoid a second defeat against Guzman.