Joe Cordina says his aim is to win a world title within the next 12 months and bring big time boxing back to his native Wales.
Cordina fights for the first time since November 2019 when he meets former EBU European Union Super Featherweight champion Faroukh Kourbanov on the undercard of Lawrence Okolie’s world title tilt against Krzysztof Glowacki at the SSE Arena on Saturday live on Sky Sports and DAZN.
The former British Lightweight champion has recovered from a hand injury and will continue his stint at Super Featherweight having dropped down to 130lbs last time out and with top 15 rankings in both the IBF and WBA, the 29-year-old is hopeful of securing a world title shot within the next year.
“There’s loads of people out there,” Cordina said on a media Zoom conference call on Tuesday.
“Obviously my goal is to win a world title and my plan is to get closer to a world title and that’s where we’re heading at the minute.
“There’s a million and one fighters out there if it makes sense and if it makes money.
“Obviously first and foremost we’ve got to pick the right fights to get me closer to a world title and then secondly it’s got to make sense money-wise, because obviously I’ve got a family to keep as well, so if it makes sense money-wise we’ll go for whoever makes sense.
“Me and [my trainer and manager] Tony [Sims] have sat down the last couple of months and we’ve sort of spoke about it loosely about what we want to do, we haven’t cemented a plan in yet, we’ve just loosely talked about it.
“I’m sort of clear and so is Tony on where we want to be in the next 12-18 months and we want to be fighting and defending a world title.”
Cordina is part of a new crop of Welsh talent looking to follow in the footsteps of those that came before them, including two-weight world champion, Joe Calzaghe and former Cruiserweight world champion, Enzo Maccarinelli.
‘The Welsh Wizard’ says he was inspired by the pair and is aiming to etch his name in the history books in the distant future.
“The main goal for me and I made it clear since I started boxing that the main thing is to win a world title and that’s what I want to do,” the 29-year-old added.
“I want to put my name down in history and I want to be the next flag bearer for boxing in Wales and I want to bring big time boxing back to Wales and I want to secure my family’s future.
“When I was getting involved, Calzaghe is one of them [that I looked up to], Enzo again, Gavin Rees, they’re from Wales you look up to them.”
Watch the full interview with Joe Cordina below:
