Former world titleholder Joe Cordina is now in a stronger position to challenge for a belt in a second weight class.
Cordina had previously been slotted sixth at lightweight by the WBO prior to his unanimous decision victory on December 13 over the fourth-ranked Gabriel Flores Jnr. That victory vaulted the 34-year-old from Cardiff, Wales, into the first spot in the WBO’s latest ratings update, which was released on December 22 and recognizes results through December 15.
This was the second bout at lightweight for Cordina, who moved up after losing his IBF junior lightweight title in May 2024 in a surprising eighth-round TKO loss to Anthony Cacace.
Cordina spent nearly 14 months away before returning this past July and widely outpointing the 17-1 Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz. Cordina’s two-fight winning streak has brought his record to 19-1 (9 KOs).
The WBO titleholder is Abdullah Mason, who outpointed a game Sam Noakes in November to pick up the vacant belt, which had previously belonged to Keyshawn Davis.
Coming after Cordina in the WBO’s lightweight rankings are Alan Abel Chaves, William Zepeda, Noakes, Shu Utsuki, Albert Bell, Floyd Schofield, Flores, Rene Tellez Giron, Jadier Herrera, Joshua Pagan, Lucas Bahdi, Christopher Mouafo, Mitchell Smith and Cameron Vuong.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
