Joe Won’t Stay Slow As Cordina Looks For Next Step Towards World Title

New Commonwealth champion Joe Cordina aims to keep busy as he his plots his way towards a world title.

The Cardiff fighter is taking a break from the ring for a few weeks – including a well deserved holiday in Malta – following his dominant victory over Sean Dodd on Saturday night.

But then it will be straight back to work for Cordina, who was taken the distance but always in comfortable control at the Ice Arena Wales as he won the vacant Commonwealth lightweight crown.

The 26-year-old eventually won easily on points and now wants to extend his eight-fight unbeaten run since turning professional with some world-ranked opposition.

Cordina said: “Sean Dodd was a good step up for me. I’ve had eight fights now and I’ve just beaten someone who has now had 20 fights, so that’s a step-up in itself, fighting for a Commonwealth title so early on in my career as a pro.

“I like ‘Masher’ and think he’s a great guy, but he didn’t do anything that affected me. The only thing he tried to do was rough me up and other than that he didn’t do anything. I thought I won every round in the fight.

“It’s one step at a time and I’ve got over my hurdle, but now I just want to enjoy my rest and then, when I get back in to camp, that’s when we’ll look at and focus on the next one.

“I don’t like having too long off and even if I am away from the gym in Essex, I still train, and when you have too long off and you have to start your track work and your hill sprints all over again, it just makes it so much harder.

“For me, I’d rather just have a couple of weeks off but do my own thing. That would be a bit of training and then at least I would come back half-fit so that it’s not so bad when I jump in with the lads.”

Fighting for his first major honour, in just his eighth contest, Cordina showcased his fast hands and technical prowess as he went the twelve-round distance for the first time in his career.

‘The Welsh Wizard’ was pushed all the way by a resilient former Commonwealth champion in Dodd though, before taking a unanimous decision with scores of 119-109, 117-112 and 120-109.