It’s another huge weekend in the world of boxing.

After Lauren Price successfully won her world title fight on Saturday, Cardiff’s own Joe Cordina is looking to defend his IBF super-featherweight title against Belfast’s Anthony Cacace.

Should Cordina succeed, it would mark an incredible week in Welsh boxing with Moses Jolly, Kane Shepherd, Kyran Jones and Rhys Edwards all winning on Price’s undercard last week.

Cordina’s fight is on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s heavyweight unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk, after the fight was postponed in February after the ‘Gypsy King’ suffered a severe cut over his right eye in sparring.

Speaking exclusively to Sportin Wales as our monthly magazine columnist, Cordina admits that having already prepped once for the fight in February that talking about his battle against Cacace is becoming “monotonous” but he feels ready to defend his belt.

“I believe I’ve been in the ring with better opposition, I’m more well-schooled than he is and I trump him in every box,” said Cordina in May’s magazine.

“I’m not saying he can’t beat me, just I think I’ve got a little bit more than him.

“Have I changed anything that I’m trying to work on? No. We’re just adding to the basket.

“We have a full trolley at the moment and may have to throw some stuff out before May 18^th, but I’m ready.”

Cacace comes into the fight with an impressive record. 22 fights, 21 wins with seven of those by knockout, his one loss coming in 2017 against Martin Joseph Ward.

Now as the holder of the IBO super-featherweight title he takes on Cordina who so far has an unblemished record of 17 wins from 17 fights, nine of which coming via knockout.

Speaking in April’s Sportin Wales magazine, Cordina gave a lot of praise to his Northern Irish opponent.

“He’s a tricky fighter, an IBO world champion and believes he’s one of the best in the division, but so am I,” said Cordina.

“He’s known to punch hard, and, although I haven’t sparred with him, I can see he’s awkward as well, so it’ll be a back-and-forth fight in terms of momentum.

“But I’ve been in the ring with awkward fighters and I’m sure with my 200 fights all in all, as an amateur and as a pro, I’ve come across someone similar and I believe I’ll get a good win.”

Speaking on the Sportin Wales podcast last week, journalist Dewi Powell and former boxer now trainer Gary Lockett both backed Cordina to overcome Cacace on Saturday.

“I fancy Joe to win, he’s the favourite for a reason but stylistically it could be a tricky fight,” said Powell.

“Cacace is no mug and has been waiting for his opportunity for a long time.

“He’s got some great endorsements, Carl Frampton says he’s one of the biggest punchers he’s ever been in the ring with.

“It doesn’t really translate on his record but he’s one of those who’s maybe a bit deceptive, his arms are a bit longer than what you first think, he’s maybe a bit tougher and his work rate is better than you think because he can often look quite relaxed.

“It’s not an easy fight, but Joe’s world champion and none of these are going to be easy fights. It’s no walkover but I think Joe’s gone to another level since he’s been fighting at world level and I’m sure he’s 100% confident of winning.”

So what if Cordina wins? What comes next?

There are two clear options.

The first option would be a unification bout. With four major bodies in boxing each having a title, WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO along with Ring magazine awarding it’s own award it means there are several titles to win.

These fights often take a long time to come around, epitomised by the heavyweight division where Usyk v Fury is the first unification fight for all the belts since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in November 1999.

Currently no super featherweight holds more than one belt with Lamont Roach Jr, O’Shaquie Foster, Cordina and Emanuel Navarrete holding a belt each with the Ring title vacant.

In boxing there are currently two undisputed champions with Mexico’s Canelo Álvarez holding all the belts in the super middleweight division, whilst Naoya Inoue holding all the titles in the super bantamweight category.

Meanwhile, Usyk and Terence Crawford are both just one title away and Artur Beterbiev needs the WBA belt alongside the Ring title.

“These fights in Saudi almost feel like a winner stays on mentality,” said Powell.

“If Joe puts in a good performance, then maybe those fights against Foster, Navarrete and [fourth ranked] Oscar Valdez which would seem unmakeable otherwise, maybe they come to reality.”

The other option is for Cordina to step up a division and fight in the lightweight division.

This has been something Cordina has suggested particularly in his March column where he mentioned how there were “bigger, more profitable fights at lightweight.”

“I’d be very comfortable at making that step up, it feels a natural one for me at this stage of my career,” Cordina added.

“I fought at that weight earlier in my boxing journey and was a British and Commonwealth champion in that category.

“There are some proper names operating at lightweight – like Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson – and the prospect of big fights in that division is appealing.

“My ultimate ambition would be to have those big, money-spinning fights, and then finish my career with two more shows in Cardiff – maybe one at Cardiff Arms Park and another at Cardiff City.

“One fight that’s pretty unlikely is Foster at super-featherweight as pro boxing is about making fights the public want to see and the truth is Foster has no following in the US.”

On moving up a weight class, both Powell and Lockett could see Cordina moving up a division for the additional money on offer.

Lockett said: “It’s great to be a world champion, but when you’re 55, 60 and look at that world champion belt on the mantelpiece but you’re skint, what difference does it make?”

“I’d always encourage my boxers to chase money over titles. Boxing is one of the hardest sports in the world, it’s brutal.

“It’s only a short career and you’ve got to earn as much money as you can in a short space of time.

“When he first moved down to super featherweight, he said he does it comfortably, now, he’s a little bit older and everything slows down and is finding it harder to make weight than he used to.

“If these unifications do come up though, then he’s got to take them because the money is there and the chance to be great is there to be a two or three belt world champion.”