It was all over after just 75 seconds of round two for Joe Cordina in Cardiff late on Saturday night. And 10 years of sacrifices to help make sure the boxing dreams never faded.
Cordina is the new IBF super-featherweight champion of the world and his single, quite brilliant right hand that knocked out Kenichi Ogawa might just be the finest punch of the year. It was both technically perfect and chilling; Ogawa went down heavily, stirred at seven and then tumbled over again as he tried to get to his knees. It was a pure knockout and at this level they are rare.
Ogawa was the puncher in the fight and that is why the end was such a shock.
Cordina’s journey from amateur prospect to world champion has been long, frustrating at times and emotionally hard on the man from Cardiff; he has seen too many of his children’s birthdays vanish under a relentless schedule at a gym in Essex. His days have been gruelling, his heart often heavy with the distance between his fighting ambitions and his wife and children back in Cardiff. “I lost my teens,” he told me in the ring at the end. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, and in a crushing business. Which is exactly what boxing is – chasing dreams can break a fighter’s heart.
And then, on Saturday night in his city, he found the greatest punch of his fighting days to change his life forever. As he held the IBF’s belt in his bandaged hands up in the ring at the end of the fight, he kept looking at it; the belt can lead to big fights and big wages. Cordina is a young 30; it was only his 15th professional contest and all he wants now are real fights. Cordina has the right temperament and boxing attitude to ask for risky fights, which deliver the majestic paydays.
“This has been the dream and the reason I do everything that I do,” Cordina told me. “I’m here now, world champion – now I want to make the money, have the fights that matter: that is all that matters. This is why I have made the sacrifices.” There is, thankfully, a growing global trend of good fighters with a single desire to take a few risks.
Ogawa, it should be said, has known and tested knockout power in his right hand and entered the ring down a slope with a nasty smile on his face; the Japanese boxer was calm, relaxed, the proper favourite, the champion. The Motorpoint Arena, crammed and sweaty with over 3,000 of Cordina’s faithful, held no fear for him. The first round was tense. Cordina was clipped by a good left hook; Ogawa had sent his warning, Cordina had taken notice. We had a fight, make no mistake.
In round two, Cordina finished Ogawa and changed his life with a punch he has worked on in his Essex gym with his trainer and great friend, Tony Sims. Cordina showed a shot to the body, a tiny feint, then let his eyes look at the body and in that short moment, the opponent dropped his guard slightly, thinking a body shot was coming. It was a class move, old-school and slick; Cordina sold the finish with his eyes, delivered the perfection with his right fist and poor Ogawa was out cold before his head hit the canvas. That is a proper boxing finish, not one for the squeamish.
There was bold talk of outdoor fights in Cardiff, big, big money bouts on the road and unification fights. It was the only possible end to another night of boxing in Cardiff; the fight, the finish and the talk. However, the names and games are for another day of speculation and dealing in the boxing game; Saturday night was all about winning the world title. There was a special feel in the old arena in the centre of the city, a place made glorious by Joe Calzaghe once upon a time. Calzaghe was there, smiling and hugging Cordina. “That’s a great finish, man,” a breathless Calzaghe said. “We are back, Cardiff is back – the big nights are here again: There is another Joe in town!”
The celebrations and talk continued long after Ogawa was cleared, long after Cordina’s horde had filled the city bars and long after Cordina and his wife, Lauren, walked away from a night that will hopefully change their life forever. “That’s why we are in the business,” said Eddie Hearn, the promoter. “It’s nights like this when it all goes right that makes all the other nights worthwhile.”
Cordina is a world champion, the first from Cardiff in 25 years and right now he deserves every moment of glory he can get. And a morning or two with his three children. Life in the boxing game is not a fairytale and it never gets easier when you win a world title. It never gets easier, but it can never be taken away from you.
