Joe Cordina kept hold of his IBF super-featherweight title with a majority decision victory over a stubborn Edward Vazquez in Monte Carlo. 

The Welshman admitted it wasn’t his best night, but it is a win that keeps the wheels moving as he and team eye up the huge unification fights. 

An enraged Vazquez ended the night by telling the suit and ties how he had once again been shafted, after what he believed was a performance worthy of walking away champion. 

Vazquez did set a high tempo from the off, but Cordina was happy to match the American, with both men landing their share of work inside the opening minutes. 

Cordina - despite weighing just a pound heavier - looked significantly bigger and broader than his counterpart. It was a size advantage he rarely used, instead being content with fighting Vazquez’s fight as the challenger looked to work on the inside. 

When Cordina did pop out his jab, it couldn’t miss the nose of Vazquez. 

A right hand slipped over that jab at the start of the third, but Cordina’s response was to measure up some straight shots for Vazquez to eat. 

Vazquez knew that in order to make significant inroads in the fight, he would have to take shots, and he was dented with a right uppercut and a whipping left to the body in the fourth. 

Cordina was clearly the more powerful of the two, yet despite a couple of twitches, Vazquez seemed relatively unfazed by what lay behind the champion’s gloves. 

There were some energetic exchanges in the pocket that made for real good viewing. 

As they entered the championship rounds, both men fired for victory, but kept it neat. Cordina would start and end the exchanges, landing combinations on Vazquez. 

Yet there was no quit in Vazquez, who completely disregarded Cordina’s defence by throwing straight through his guard. It felt as if the pair were teetering on the edge of a trade-off. 

The Vazquez left hook became Cordina’s nemesis, and at one point it looked to have him weak at the knees. Cordina threw his forceful right hand in return. 

Cordina was on his toes in the eleventh, hoping Vazquez would have felt the relentless pace of the back-and-forth action. Instead, the challenger chased him like a bull to a red rag. 

The Cordina jab was working a treat as the clocked ticked in the last, and several times it rocked back the head of Vazquez, whose short hooks came with their own warning. 

Both men were fighting as if they knew the cards would rely on the final round. It was a brilliant end to a captivating fight, and a slightly tense wait as cards were counted. 

AND STILL! 

114-114 & 116-112 x2 gave the majority win to Cordina, who immediately began conversing with a devastated Vazquez. 

Sure, he may feel hard done by, but on reflection, Vazquez hardly ripped away the title from Cordina. A cliché maybe, but it is the universally acknowledged way to approach proceedings as challenger. 

Cordina will now head towards his division’s big fights, namely O’Shaquie Foster who, after last week’s victory, is on the same timeframe as the IBF belt holder. 

If not him, then Emmanuel Navarette, and if not Navarette, then maybe a British blockbuster with Leigh Wood. 

However, with Wood chasing his City Ground homecoming, it might well be difficult to get Cordina as champion to enter what would be a ferocious Lions’ Den. 

Oscar Bevis