IBF super-featherweight champion Joe Cordina has outlined his intentions to vacate his world title if he is unable to secure a unification bout in the near future, despite having a second defence of his belt already lined up.
The Welshman sensationally knocked out Kenichi Ogawa in 2022 to win the IBF title, but was stripped shortly after due to an injury.
However, in his very next outing, he won the belt back from Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in an absolute barnstormer, before defeating Edward Vasquez by majority decision in Monaco back in November.
Now Cordina is scheduled to face fellow Brit Anthony Cacace on the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk undercard, but told the BBC that he is eyeing up the other 130lb champions.
“Cacace is a good fight – but it’s not the fight people probably wanted or expected.”
“I was chasing the other title holders but it hasn’t happened yet. For me, if I can’t get a unification fight in my next fight, I’ll look to go up a weight. I’m not getting any younger and the big money fights are at the weight above me, Cacace’s a great fighter but if I beat him and don’t get a unification fight, I don’t want to just keep defending my title.”
One option for Cordina could be WBC super-featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster, although the 32-year-old believes that the American is pricing himself out of the bout.
“I talked to Eddie [Hearn] and he told me that, when they did make an offer to him to fight me, he was asking for silly, silly money.”
“Even if I went over there, he can’t fill anything. I mentioned him in America when I was over there and even Americans didn’t know who he was. He’s irrelevant but he’s got a belt. It seems like it’ll be too hard work to deal with him. There are other champions out there.”
Cordina-Cacace will take place on May 18th on the mammoth Fury-Usyk bill in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.