Joe Cordina 15-0 (9) believes his ring IQ will get him over the line when he challenges IBF super featherweight champion Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov 17-0-1 (14) for his former title at Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales on April 22.
“Shavkat Rakimov – he’s tough, he’s strong, he’s fit and he can punch hard,” Cordina said to Top Class Boxing. “I always say, you have to a little bit more than that to beat me. I’m a little bit better than him in all the boxes.
“I believe I’ve got a very good boxing brain. My ring IQ is second to none. My footwork is on a different level. I’m good on the inside, I can fight up close. I can fight going backwards. I can pretty much do it all.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect in any way, shape or form and I’m not the finished article, but he has to have a little bit more than just being tough and strong and being able to punch to beat me. He really isn’t bringing anything that I’ve never seen before.
“There’s not a man on the planet that I fear. I’ll find a way to put you on the deck.”
The 31-year-old Welshman claimed the IBF 130-pound belt from Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa 27-2-1 (19) last June when he knocked him out in the second round.
“It was a shot that me and Tony worked on for hours and hours in the gym,” Cordina said. “It just felt like putting my hand in water, it was that clean. I looked at him and his head had bounced off the canvas, and I thought, ‘he’s finished’.
“Going to the corner, I could see him trying to get up and I started to panic a bit – I don’t need to do 12 rounds here! Good night, he was asleep.”
Cordina didn’t lose his title in the ring but instead was stripped of his belt by the IBF after injuring his hand. That opened the door for Rakhimov to contest the vacant title against Zelfa Barrett 28-2 (16), who the 28-year-old Tajikstan southpaw stopped in nine last November.
“My first week back sparring, I threw my first proper backhand and I just felt something pop in my hand and I remember thinking ‘oh my god’,” Cordina said.
“The lady at the x-ray told me it was a clean break. I had the operation. It was after my surgery that I knew I was getting stripped. That wasn’t a nice moment, I’m not going to lie. I was in a bit of a bad place. I didn’t really want to see people, I was stuck in the house for like two weeks. Then I was like ‘fuck this, I need to get out’.”
Now Cordina has the chance to become a two-time world champion against Rakhimov.
