Joe Cordina sensationally became IBF super featherweight champion of the world, as he ruthlessly knocked out Kenichi Ogawa in the second round at The Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on Saturday.
Cardiff’s Cordina (15-0, 9 KOs) was in his first real acid test as a professional, having never previously boxed at world level, while Ogawa (26-2-1, 18 KOs) was making the first defence of a belt he won last November in a points win against Azinga Fuzile.
It was a humongous right hand that did the damage for the Welshman, a perfectly timed shot that crumpled the Japanese on impact.
Try as he might, Ogawa’s senses were robbed, and he was unable to get to his feet as the referee waved the fight off, much to Cordina and his team’s delight.
“We call it the Roberto Duran,” Cordina told DAZN post-fight.
JOE CORDINA JUST DID THAT 👀#OgawaCordina pic.twitter.com/OXsBcqgqVe
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) June 4, 2022
“We’ve been working on it all camp.
“It’s an amazing feeling when you put hours and hours and hours and hours of work into a certain combination or a punch and then you put it in a fight.
“You don’t even think about it and it comes off and then lights out. It’s over.”
Barrett crowned European champion
Keeping the pressure on the winner of the main event was Zelfa Barrett, and ‘Brown Flash’ became the new European super featherweight champion with an assured, wide points win over Faroukh Kourbanov (19-4, 3 KOs).
Barrett (28-1, 16 KOs) won an IBF title eliminator in his last contest, and the Manchester man largely dominated against the Belgian by scores of 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110.
Smith extends unbeaten run
Dalton Smith yet again impressed, defending his WBC International Silver super lightweight title for the first time, forcing Mauro Perouene (14-6-1, 7 KOs) to retire after six rounds.
Smith (11-0, 9 KOs) dropped the Argentine on the bell to end the sixth, and Perouene’s corner wisely pulled their man out of battle.
Yafai back to winning ways
Gamal Yafai (19-2, 11 KOs) rebounded from the loss of his European title last time out, scoring a fourth round knockout against Sean Cairns (8-4, 2 KOs) in their scheduled eight rounder at super bantamweight.
What a shot by Yafai 💥#OgawaCordina pic.twitter.com/ppHHW5rYOf
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) June 4, 2022
Nicolson notches fourth win
Skye Nicholson (4-0) has had a busy 2022 to date, and the Australian took all eight rounds at featherweight against Gabriela Bouvier (15-11, 3 KOs).
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Remaining Undercard
Calum French (3-0, 1 KO) banked eight rounds for the first time as a professional, taking a 79-73 verdict for the referee in his super lightweight contest against Gadatamen Taylor (4-10-1).
Monique Bux’s (0-1) debut was a disastrous one, as the Welsh super middleweight was upset over four rounds against Ester Konecna (2-15-1), who had one won once previously in seventeen paid contests. The Czech took a 39-37 victory.
At middleweight, Kyran Jones (4-0, 1 KO) took a 40-35 win over four against Vasif Memedov, (2-18-3), and at welterweight, Ben Crocker (4-0, 1 KO) remained unbeaten, winning all four rounds against Evgenii Vazem (9-30, 4 KOs).
Joe Morgan (4-0, 1 KO) made it a hat-trick of boxers going to 4-0 on the night, defeating Rustem Fatkhullin (8-33, 3 KOs) by a 40-35 score.
