The Big Sacrifice

Joe Cordina, a young boxer from Cardiff, has hit headlines and put Cardiff back on the map for Welsh Boxing.

Joe held the British and Commonwealth lightweight titles between 2018 and 2019 and represented Britain at the 2016 summer Olympics. Joe Cordina celebrated his European Gold belt just a month after becoming a father. He made his debut as a super-featherweight in April 2017 and in June 2022 became the World IBF champion at the Motorpoint Arena in his hometown of Cardiff. His record currently stands at 16 fights with no losses. However, after breaking his hand and enduring major surgery in October 2022 Joe suffered a major setback and had to pull out of his scheduled title defence match against Shavkat Rakhimov in November and was stripped of his IBF belt. Now, just 7 months later he returned to the ring in April 2023 to retain the title once more. SOTC speak to Joe about his journey and inspirations that have led to his success.

How did you first start boxing, take me back to the beginning of that journey?

I wasn’t boxing; I was playing rugby and football and because I was only small, I was a target for all the big boys. So, I ended up fighting a lot of the time. My Dad was like “you're going to go to the gym and get fit and take your anger out there” and it went from there. After 3 months my coach at the time asked me “Do you want to fight?” and I was like “Yeah”. I didn’t really want to fight; I just wanted to keep fit and keep doing what I was doing. I had my first fight; one fight led to two, led to three…and so on”