In a hard-fought majority decision, Joe Cordina defeated Edward Vazquez to successfully defend his IBF super-featherweight title in Monte Carlo.

The 31-year-old Welshman Cordina was defending his world title for the first time.

Even though he was a huge underdog, American Vazquez showed he was a worthy opponent as he never gave up and put Cordina through one of the hardest tests of his professional career.

The judges gave Cordina the victory with scores of 114-114, 116-112, and 116-112.

Relive Cordina’s razor-thin victory over Vasquez. After the loss, Cordina’s side traded barbs with Vasquez’s corner, who responded passionately. Cordina acknowledged that he had not been at his best.

“He was a tricky, clever fighter but he lost the fight, end of story,” Cordina stated.

“My corner informed me that it was probably level when we approached the tenth.

“Although I didn’t box to the best of my abilities, I believe I did enough to win.

Relive Cordina’s thrilling victory in Monaco versus Vazquez.
Amazing Ali triumphs in spite of his “jelly legs.”We have judges at ringside for this reason. I couldn’t defeat him [Vazquez] on my darkest night.

“He’s a sore loser and now he’s gone off to have a little cry.”

Cordina’s professional career has progressed more slowly than he would have wanted due to injury concerns, and recognition outside of Wales has taken a while to come about.

519 days after becoming a world champion for the first time, Cordina successfully defended his title for the first time. Although he was never at his best, he can now look forward to bigger nights ahead.

In Cardiff in June 2022, Cordina stunned Kenichi Ogawa by a knockout to win the IBF title.

After suffering a severe hand injury that required surgery and ended his professional career, he had to give it up. However, in April, he defeated Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in a very tough split decision, earning him the title back.

The Cardiff International Arena hosted both of those fights. Eddie Hearn, the promoter of Cordina, told BBC Sport Wales following Rakhimov’s victory that Cordina had “outgrown” the 5,000-seat venue.

But Cordina’s first championship defense took place at the Casino de Monte Carlo, to an audience of hundreds, not thousands, as opposed to fighting in a stadium.

In Monaco, Cordina’s arrival was a far cry from the fracas of noise that had welcomed him in Cardiff, where only thirty of the Welshman’s friends and family were there.

In 2019, Cordina defeated Mario Enrique Tinoco via scorecard in the same arena. Feeling at ease in his new environment, Cordina quickly controlled the first round by catching Vazquez with left hands to the body.

In the second round, Vazquez answered with some crisp head punches that Cordina took well, and the Welshman looked keen to get close to Vazquez.

In the fourth round, Cordina seemed to give the Texan some trouble with a left uppercut, but Vazquez answered brilliantly, pressing forward and attempting to force Cordina to scrap on the inside.

With Cordina occasionally finding it difficult to line up strikes against the smaller guy, Vazquez kept moving forward and brought the fight much closer at the midway point than Cordina’s corner would have preferred.

In the seventh round, Cordina started to demonstrate his class by taking a step back to limit Vazquez’s offensive while controlling the distance and setting the tempo with his jab. However, in the eighth round, Vazquez gave it his all.

Edward Vazquez and Joe Cordina debate.
Cordina increased her run of victories to 17 bouts.
As the battle moved closer to the championship rounds, it continued to fluctuate, with Cordina landing many significant blows in round 10.

Despite having never won more than ten rounds in his career, Vazquez kept applying pressure, and in the closing stages, both boxers began to realize how close the fight was.

Both boxers raised their arms in celebration of winning the thrilling last round, but Cordina was declared the winner—much to Vazquez’s dismay.

“Joe wasn’t able to do anything he wanted to do all night,” Vazquez stated.

“I won the fight, I know I won the fight, [promoter] Eddie Hearn knows I won the fight.”

With WBO featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete, WBC champion O’Shaquie Foster, and a local bout against Nottingham’s WBA featherweight champion Leigh Wood all on the cards, Cordina can now look forward to some potentially huge battles.

“It was a close fight, a really exciting fight,” Hearn stated.

“Every champion ought to attempt to bring the division together, and at 130 pounds, I think Joe Cordina is capable of defeating any champion.”

“Whether that is in Las Vegas or Cardiff, it’s time to roll the dice.”