Cordina to return at lightweight against Gonzalez
Former IBF super-featherweight champion Joe Cordina will return to the ring on 5 July to fight Mexico's Jaret Gonzalez at lightweight.Cordina, 33, lost his title to Anthony Cacace in a surprise defeat in Saudi Arabia 13 months ago.The Welsh boxer had been due to make his comeback against Shakur Stevenson in October, but the WBC lightweight champion pulled out with a hand injury.Cordina's return to lightweight - where he won British and Commonwealth titles earlier in his career - will come on the undercard of Jack Catterall v Harlem Eubank at Manchester's AO Arena.Responding to the announcement on social media Cordina simply posted: "Baby I'm back."Gonzalez, 24, is 17-1 in a career that includes 13 KOs, similar to the Welshman's 17-1 (9 KOs), though not at the same level as Cordina who has moved back to south Wales and will train for the fight with Gary Lockett.
Cardiff's Cordina was a decorated amateur boxer who fought at an Olympics and in the same Team GB programme as his friend Anthony Joshua.He won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and was European amateur champion in 2015.After turning professional in 2017 he became Wales' 13th world champion boxer when he beat Kenichi Ogawa to claim the IBF super-featherweight title in June 2022.He was stripped of the title when he was unable to defend it within a 90-day window after suffering a broken hand but won it back with a hard-fought split-decision win over Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in April 2023.He then made one successful defence, a majority decision win over Edward Vazquez, before losing to Northern Ireland's Cacace in May 2024.Prior to that first professional defeat promoter Eddie Hearn had predicted Cordina was set for some "huge fights" if he could retain his title.His previous promotional contract with Hearn's Matchroom having since elapsed, this will be Cordina's first fight of a new deal with the organisation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The man with the most important job in Scottish rugby right now is essentially phoning it in from Bondi Beach, writes Calum Crowe
Franco Smith is not a man known for wild displays of emotion. Generally speaking, the Glasgow Warriors head coach usually wears a facial expression that would turn Medusa to stone. But there was a raw sense of candour in Smith's voice when he spoke to journalists in the aftermath of Glasgow's defeat to Leinster in the URC semi-finals last weekend.
Glasgow Times
4 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Belgium will be ‘shaking in boots' ahead of Wales game in Cardiff
Belgium inflicted Craig Bellamy's first defeat as Wales head coach with an extraordinary 4-3 World Cup qualifying victory in Brussels on Monday. The Red Devils, ranked eighth in the world, let slip a three-goal lead before Kevin De Bruyne spared home blushes with an 88th-minute winner. Sorba Thomas (left) battles for the ball with Belgium's Jeremy Doku in Brussels (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP) The return fixture is in Cardiff on October 13 and new Stoke signing Thomas said of Belgium: 'That's a team that is top 10. People will say 'little old Wales' but we took the game to them. 'They're going to be shaking in their boots when they come to Cardiff to play us. We're hungry, we're a young group. 'I felt when it went to 3-3 it was in our hands. But it's a devastating game, football is a horrible sport sometimes. (Against) top 10 in the world and we feel we should have walked away with a win.' Wales seemed to be heading for a humiliating night when Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Jeremy Doku struck inside the opening 27 minutes. Brennan Johnson (second right) celebrates with team-mates after scoring Wales' third goal against Belgium (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP) There was a party atmosphere inside the King Baudouin Stadium as home supporters began a Mexican wave. Thomas said: 'Them behaving like that put it down to the pitch. The players got relaxed and we punished that. 'They might have been doing the Mexican wave but they weren't doing it when it went to 3-3. 'They're entitled to do what they want, but we deal with what's on the pitch. The whole game shifted. 'They countered us a few times, but I felt we played their big players well. 'We're a young team and we're going places. That's one loss in 10. We'll learn from this and get better and better.' After Harry Wilson converted a penalty in first-half stoppage time, winger Thomas scored his first Wales goal and then set up Brennan Johnson's equaliser to cap a memorable week. The 26-year-old also started Friday's 3-0 victory over Liechtenstein and the following day left Huddersfield to join Stoke on a three-year deal. Sorba is a Stokie 🔴⚪ — Stoke City FC (@stokecity) June 7, 2025 'Personally it's been one heck of a week,' said Thomas, who has spent the season on loan at Ligue 1 club Nantes. 'I've secured my future and got my first Wales goal. I hope my family all watching at home were proud. 'I've loved my time at Huddersfield. They took me from non-league and made my dreams reality to play for Wales and put me in this moment. 'To get it (the move) done early was important because I can focus on my football. 'I want to play well in the Championship every week next season and give the manager a headache to keep putting me in the team.'
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sam Thompson and Louis Tomlinson set for awkward encounter THIS weekend at Soccer Aid - three months after it was revealed One Direction star was dating his ex Zara McDermott
Sam Thompson is set for an awkward encounter with Louis Tomlinson at Soccer Aid this Sunday - three months after the One Direction singer started dating Sam's ex Zara McDermott. The men will be on the same England team for Unicef - the same charity Sam completed a 260-mile five-day long marathon for on Friday. And while Sam has insisted there are 'no hard feelings', the encounter is bound to sting a little. Sam, 32, and former Love Islander Zara, 28, confirmed they had ended their relationship in January after more than five years together. Zara moved on pretty quickly with singer Louis, 33, with the smitten couple appearing inseparable since their romance was made public in March. They have enjoyed a loved-up getaway to Costa Rica together after Louis flew his new flame out to the island first-class. Meanwhile I'm A Celeb winner Sam has moved on with Love Island beauty Samie Eilshi, 25. After their blossoming romance was confirmed when they shared a steamy kiss in Mayfair last month, speculation of a split grew after Samie was noticeably absent from Sam's highly-publicised challenge for Soccer Aid last week. Such rumours have since been squashed however, with their romance reportedly going from strength to strength as they 'love spending time together on their days off', a source close to the couple told MailOnline. During an episode of their podcast Staying Relevant's last month, Pete Wicks, 37, teased Sam about the prospect of the potentially awkward encounter between him and Louis. The TOWIE star asked his co-host: 'You're really going through it with the whole f****** body and dieting and training loads. Is that for Soccer Aid?' Sam laughed and assured he's 'loving it' but 'no, it's not' for the game, to which Pete continued: 'Are you sure it's not for Soccer Aid? How are you feeling? You're playing again. Must be really exciting.' He added: 'How do you feel about the line up? Do you think you've got a strong team?' Awkwardly laughing, Sam replied: 'Got a really strong team'. But, not dropping the subject, Pete then asked: 'Any kind of people in there who you're looking forward to playing with?' 'Loads,' Sam laughed: 'Tom Grennan. I'm really looking forward to playing alongside Wayne Rooney, Tyson Fury's the manager. I can't wait'. Pete joked: 'I mean that's gonna be f****** amazing. Make sure you get him on side though because you may need him in your corner in case you fall out with anyone. Not that you will but just in case there's any rivalries or anything. 'You know, you have to train together and it's a lot, you know when you're kind of in close quarters with someone like that. All sorts gets brought up. Anyway...' Sam and Louis will join the likes of Tyson Fury, Jill Scott, Grennan and Paddy McGuinness in the star-studded squad, while Wayne Rooney will step out of retirement as one of the managers. However, whilst he is assured to be in attendance, Sam's ability to take part in the match itself is doubtful after he suffered an agonising ankle injury during his journey from London to Manchester on bike and foot last week. The former I'm A Celeb winner suffered the injury on the marathon's first day, but managed to power through five further days before reaching the finish line on Friday. Having raised more than £1.5million for Unicef and battled through a torn calf, the 32-year-old couldn't hide his emotions after completing his mission as he collapsed to the floor in tears. Speaking after the challenge, Sam said: 'My legs have completely gone but I feel good. I'm so grateful for everyone being here, I didn't think anyone would turn up. 'To everyone who has donated, I've said it before but I'll say it a million times, you are so heroic. The money will help so many children, I'm so grateful.' Sam may now have more time to pursue his romance with Samie, who recently opened up about their relationship for the first time. Sam first met Samie, who appeared on Love Island in 2023 and returned to the All Stars series this year, through his presenting role on Aftersun. Samie spoke about the blossoming relationship for the first time during an appearance on the Chloe Mediumship podcast. The show is hosted by a psychic medium and in the episode, the beauty revealed how she's previously had negative gut feelings in past relationships. She explained: 'I've had gut feelings with guys before. I've had a couple of relationships where I've known it was never it. Like this is gonna come to an end, I'll have something telling me every day it's coming to an end, this isn't for you. 'You put it to the back of your mind and then you start noticing the chaos increase. It's like the universe saying I'm gonna blow you both up if you just do not separate. Then I'm like if I only I listened all those months ago when I got that first message.' Then, host Chloe asked: 'Obviously, you don't have to talk about it too much but the guy you're currently speaking to, do you have that gut feeling? Like do you think it's gonna be really good?' Keeping her cards close to her chest, the former Love Islander replied: 'There's been no bad stuff at the minute so yeah I suppose it is all positive right now. It's early days.' Zara and Louis sparked relationship speculation at the start of this year before going public in March, three months after MailOnline revealed Zara and ex-boyfriend Sam had parted ways. Despite his heartache over Zara moving on so quickly, sources close to Sam exclusively told MailOnline at the time he holds no grudges against Louis over the new romance. A source close to the star said: 'Sam has no hard feelings towards Louis, that's for sure. 'As far as he's concerned, Louis is Zara's new man and he's just got to accept it. 'He's a positive guy and will just move on from this, throwing himself into work and getting stuck into the exciting projects he's got coming up. 'Obviously he was sad when their relationship broke up and, like anyone, when your ex moves so quickly it's tough. And if he was both angry and devastated, that would be understandable. 'But he's not sitting around wallowing in self pity, far from it.' Zara and Sam were together for five years before they split at the end of 2024 shortly after the Made In Chelsea favourite worked in Australia for I'm A Celeb spinoff show Unpacked. This year's Soccer Aid for Unicef match airs on the evening of Sunday 15 June on ITV1 and ITVX from Old Trafford, Manchester.
