Joe Cordina still wants the fight with Shakur Stevenson after losing out on the match on October 12th due to a hand injury for the Newark, New Jersey native. That’s got to be disappointing for the 33-year-old Cordina because he missed out on a nice payday through no fault of his own.
The Missed Opportunity
Interestingly, rather than Shakur choosing to continue on with the Cordina fight after his hand injury, he moved on, washing his hands of this much-criticized fight going in the direction of an equally lampooned fight against prospect Floyd Schofield.
The former IBF super featherweight champion Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) may not have gotten the word that the Golden Boy-promoted prospect Schofield signed the contract to challenge Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) for his WBC lightweight belt on February 22nd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It’s reported that the 22-year-old Schofield will receive a career-high payday of over $1 million for that fight. Just think. Cordina could have received that money if Shakur had chosen to reschedule.
He wasn’t going to do that because His Excellency Turki Alalshikh wanted fights that would interest the global public, and Cordina would attract any favorable appeal from U.S. fans. Even the UK public wouldn’t be excited about Shakur defending against Cordina on the February 22nd card.
Cordina was knocked out in the ninth round by Anthony Cacace earlier this year on May 18th in Riyadh. That was a one-sided fight from start to finish with Cacace being too busy, too skilled and too talented for Cordina.
What Cordina needs to do is move up to lightweight and work his way into position if he wants an opportunity to get a title shot against Shakur. There will be no unearned title chances for Cordina, which is what it would have been had the fight with Shakur gone down on October 12th. Cordina would be coming off a knockout loss, unranked at 135, making his debut in the weight class. He checks every box for being undeserving of a title shot.
Contender Gauntlet
His advanced age is working against Cordina being able to climb the ranks at lightweight to fight for a title shot. The only way Cordina can get a title shot is to fight four to six times in 2025, facing these contenders:
– Keyshawn Davis
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Andy Cruz
– Abdullah Mason
– Raymond Muratalla
