#3 IBF contender Joe Cordina (15-0, 9 KOs) pulled off a surprise second-round knockout win over IBF super featherweight champion Kenichi Ogawa (26-2-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday night in front of a shocked crowd at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
In the second round, the 30-year-old Cordina pulled off a career-best knockout of Ogawa after landing a scorching right hand that sent the champion down like a sack of potatoes.
Ogawa was badly hurt and there was no point in giving a court. The time of the stoppage was at 1:15 of the second round.
In the opening round, the 34-year-old Ogawa landed a couple of big right hands to the head of Cordina. After that round, it looked like Ogawa would have too much firepower for Cordina, but it didn’t turn out that way.
Ogawa got too aggressive in the second and walked into a perfectly placed right hand from Cordina that bowled him over.
After the contest, promoter Eddie Hearn said Cordina could face either his IBF mandatory Shavkat Rakhimov or #2 contender Zelfa Barrett next.
WBO super featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson posted on social media that he’d be open to fighting Cordina in England. Hearn didn’t sound too excited at the thought of letting Cordina fight Shakur, which isn’t surprising.
As great as Cordina’s win was tonight against Ogawa, he’d be out of his league against Stevenson.
“The sharpness of his punches and Ogawa coming on to him, being aggressive, it was one of the best knockouts I’ve ever seen,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social, talking about Joe Cordina’s one-punch knockout of IBF 130-lb champion Ogawa in the second round.
“Shakur Stevenson, whether that’s next or next summer, I don’t know,” Hearn continued about who Cordina can face next as the new IBF super featherweight champion.
“They’re the kind of performances that give you the kind of shot in those kinds of fights versus, ‘Shakur Stevenson is just too good for everybody.
“There are so many massive fights here for him [Cordina] or in Wales or in America as well. That was a stunning victory. I didn’t think anybody could do that to Ogawa.
Joe Cordina’s not a renowned puncher, but you don’t see Ogawa get knocked out like that. You don’t see him get hurt. It was just an absolute stunner, a knockout of the year, a knockout of the decade, whatever you want to call it,” said Hearn.
