The Cardiff International Arena saw rise to two British champions claiming one of the highest honours of the sport of boxing by becoming world champion. On the night of April 22nd, British Super Featherweight former world champion, Joe Cordina, and British women’s Welterweight Sandy Ryan netted key victories that laid open a new foundation in their careers.
Sandy Ryan (6-1, 2 KO’s), a former amateur champion, had quickly risen to the status of contender following a set of decisive wins over former world champions Erica Farias and (27-7, 10 KO’s) and Anahi Sanchez (21-6, 13 KO’s) in 2022, even with the former defeating her by split-decision earlier in the same year. Though she obviously had the least pro experience out of the last couple of opponents she fought, Ryan has shown herself to be a unicorn in the sport with her rapid ascent to the top of her division despite just completing her seventh fight as a professional.
On fight night, Sandy Ryan was matched with Canadian Marie-Pier Houle (8-1-1, 2 KO’s) who had been undefeated prior to her fight with Ryan, and also made waves in the women’s Welterweight division while having less than a double-digit number of fights as a professional. Houle’s tenth fight, however, would result in her suffering her first career loss following ten rounds against Sandy Ryan. The two fought for the vacant WBO women’s Welterweight title that had been relinquished by Jessica McCaskill (12-3, 5 KO’s) after agreeing to vacate her title if she lost to Chantelle Cameron (17-0, 8 KO’s) on November 5th in 2022 ― which eventually did occur.
Developed in the amateurs and sharpened as a professional, Sandy Ryan managed to control virtually all the rounds to come out the winner by unanimous decision against a similarly fast-tracked opponent who fought a host of virtually-unknown international opponents to get ahead in the rankings.
Sandy Ryan’s jabs, combinations and overall boxing ability at range ― or mid-range prevented Marie-Pier Houle from establishing herself during the ten rounds. Though Houle did fight on the front foot for most of the time, she was ineffective with many of her strikes due to Sandy Ryan’s slick boxing ability, and the Canadian became thoroughly out-struck and was endlessly jabbed once the fight reached the latter half.
The closure of the 10th round resulted in Sandy Ryan being announced the winner by UD, earning her the vacant WBO women’s Welterweight world title, which in itself not only counts as an impressive achievement, but is made even more significant due to fact she won it in just 7 fights ― which can safely be considered one of the quickest runs to a world title by a British female boxer.
Former British IBF Super Featherweight champion, Joe Cordina (16-0, 9 KO’s) faced Shavkat Rakhimov (17-1-1, 14 KO’s) who had been the incumbent IBF Super Featherweight world champion after it had been relinquished by Joe Cordina himself following his inability to defend his title within 90 days after suffering an injury.
Rakhimov won the then-vacated IBF title against British Super Featherweight contender Zelfa Barrett (29-2, 16 KO’s) on November 5th in 2022, and a fight was soon arranged with Joe Cordina after the former British champion had been deemed to be fight-ready following his injury.
The battle between Joe Cordina and Shavkat Rakhimov was therefore a pivotal match-up to decide, in essence, the true IBF champion of the 130 lbs division. After 12 rounds, it was Cordina who scraped by to reclaim his IBF world title following what would likely be considered the toughest fight for both.
Throughout the match, Shavkat Rakhimov moved to pressure Joe Cordina which would have been more successful if Cordina had not fought a near-perfect fight. Drawing out every bit of skill he learned in his career, Cordina was elusive, strategic, fast-thinking and effective with his general approach in the match which saw him become a swiss-knife of sorts during his bout with Rakhimov, doing a variety of things offensively and defensively that saw him edge most of the rounds.
Joe Cordina’s most pivotal moments came by the knockdown he incurred on Rakhimov in just the 2nd of the fight. The knockdown in the 2nd round sent Rakhimov to the floor after a strong left by Cordina, which perhaps drove Rakhimov to fight even harder as he pushed himself to the limits.
Both fighters occasionally became engaged in a dog fight of sorts that actually seemed to favor Rakhimov who was intent on overcoming his 2nd round knockdown. Joe Cordina also proved to battle with stamina issues as the round went on, while Rakhimov would eventually need to deal with a cut he suffered in the 6th which wasn’t as debilitating as it looked, but did add to a thoroughly bruised face for Rakhimov which Cordina could capitalize on.
After 12 rounds of a grueling battle, Cordina was ruled the winner, albeit barely, by split-decision with both fighters looking quite fatigued and faded ― though Rakhimov arguably looked the worst out of the two judging by his physical state.
Joe Cordina’s victory was well-earned, and rightfully got him back to the position of a world champion after he recaptured his IBF title against an opponent that had been a world champion, like him, and undefeated.
The fight card further featured Shavkat Rakhimov’s former opponent for the previously-vacant IBF title, Zelfa Barrett, score a UD victory over his American combatant Jason Sanchez (16-4, 9 KO’s), and Australian female Featherweight prospect Skye Nicolson (7-0, 0 KO’s) continued on with her undefeated winning streak with another points total victory over Peruvian fighter Linda Laura Lecca (15-7-2, 3 KO’s).
