Welsh boxer Joe Cordina is targeting a fight in November or December following the cancellation of October’s scheduled bout with WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson.
The former IBF super-featherweight champion had been preparing to make an ambitious step up to lightweight after tasting defeat for the first time in his career against Anthony Cacace in May.
However, three-weight champion Stevenson, 27, has had surgery on his hand that will keep him out of the ring until 2025.
Cordina, 32, admitted it was “a kick” to miss out on the 12 October fight in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia: “Yeah don’t get me wrong… but listen it is what it is,” he said.
“It happens, we’ve just got to keep it moving, we’ve just got to wait for the phone to ring and once the phone rings I’m ready, I’m staying in the gym and I’m ready to go.”
Stevenson and Cordina were set to meet on the undercard of the undisputed light-heavyweight world-title fight between Russians Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
American Stevenson has an unbeaten record in 22 fights, including 10 stoppages, and has been a world champion at featherweight, super-featherweight as well as lightweight.
Cordina said he is now looking to fight an alternative opponent in Saudi on either the undercard of cruiserweights Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez and Chris Billam-Smith on 16 November – or as support to the Oleksandr Usyk v Tyson Fury heavyweight rematch on 21 December.
“We were trying to get a replacement but obviously for a fighter of the calibre we were fighting – Shakur Stevenson is arguably one of the top-five best fighters on the planet – trying to get someone to replace that is going to be hard at three weeks’ notice,” Cordina told BBC 5 Live.
“So I think the best thing to do is reschedule, go again, maybe on either the 16 November bill or the Fury-Usyk number two. That would make more sense – I think we would be able to get a decent opponent and a credible opponent.”
Cordina first captured the IBF super-featherweight title in June 2022 before relinquishing it because of his own hand surgery. He won it back in April 2023 and made one successful defence before losing to Northern Ireland’s Cacace.
