Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz Predictions: Welsh wonder walks back into the spotlight

Former IBF super featherweight champion Joe Cordina returns after 14 months on the sidelines this Saturday, July 5 when he takes on Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz. The bout serves as chief support for Jack Catterall’s welterweight clash with Harlem Eubank. The AO Arena in Manchester hosts the card, which also sees outings for Aqib Fiaz, Skye Nicolson and Pat Brown. The event will be streamed live on DAZN.

Here are my Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz predictions ahead of this enticing engagement.

Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz Odds

Cordina is a former world champion which explains his runaway 1/50 in the winner market. Gonzalez is 14/1 for a win that would catapult his career into the stratosphere. The draw is 25/1. 

Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz Fight Preview

Like main eventer Catterall, this bout sees Cordina going up in weight following a disappointment. The Welshman was stopped in eight rounds by Antony Cacace in May 2024, losing his IBF belt in the process. Now, over a year on, Cordina finally moves up to 135lbs. 

The climb was supposed to take place sooner. Cordina had been scheduled to meet WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson in October 2024 in Riyadh. Stevenson pulled out of the fight a month prior with a hand injury. When the American finally returned, he was down to face countryman Floyd Schofield. When the latter pulled out injured, it was fellow Brit Josh Padley, rather than Cordina who got the call.

Padley last nine rounds but achieved widespread fame for his moment in the sun. An electrician by day, accepting the fight on two days’ notice and performing admirably gave the Doncaster man a profile. Meanwhile, Cordina risked becoming a forgotten man.

Now, after the machinations of this unusual sport have kept him shelved, Cordina finally gets a chance to remind the doubters who he is. Lest we forget, the 33-year-old was looking every inch a worthy world champion.

Cordina captured his first world crown with a stunning second-round knockout of Kenichi Ogawa. The Japanese IBF world champion was unbeaten for a decade, Cordina looked superb in slashing him to ribbons. It was a dominant start to his world title career.

Cordina was then stripped of the title when he could not make a scheduled title defence against Shavkat Rakhimov. The unbeaten boxer from Tajikistan then won the vacant IBF strap via unanimous decision over Manchester’s Zelfa Barrett. Cordina, in turn, relieved Rakhimov of the belt upon his return, also on points.

Whether you class the latter as a second title win or a de facto title defence, the headline remained that Cordina was a world champion and a good one. A majority decision win over Edward Vazquez tested the theory, being hotly-contested and rabidly-debated. But the Welshman left with his belt and that counted for something.

It would be the last time Cordina did walk out of the ring as a world champion. A rough-and-tumble affair with Cacace saw the defeated, now-ex-champion blame punches landed on the break for his eight-round TKO defeat. But the truth was that, despite some controversy, Cacace had simply been better on the night. Savage and relentless, he took the IBF belt by force.

A frustrating year in the shadows followed, but now Cordina is back. A higher division awaits as he aims for a third world title. At the age of 33, Cordina will not want to hang around. A big win against Gonzalez will need to be followed in short order by match-ups with the best available contenders.

So what of Gonzalez? The record displays 17 wins against one defeat. The Mexican has knocked out five of his last six opponents. At 24 he has youth on his side, too. Fighters from Mexico often start young, picking up a loss or two along the way as part of the learning curve before peaking later. 

But it has to be said that Gonzalez’s level of opposition has been woeful so far. His ledger is littered with journeymen and debutants. His sole conqueror, a campaigner called Hector Garcia who gave Nyall Berry some rounds in Coventry last year, was 7-4 at the time he beat Gonzalez. He is now 9-10.

Fighting a clutch of journeymen is not unusual in a young career. But at 24, if the fighter is not being given a more gradual introduction to better fighters, I smell trouble. Going from fighting journeymen to domestic level guys tells me you’re got a prospect who is learning. Journeymen to a former world champion tells me you’re a warm body for hire.

But there are worse opponents to give someone coming off their first professional loss followed by 14 months of inactivity. There is no harm in Cordina blowing the cobwebs off and looking good doing it. He’ll know as well as we do that the next fight has to be something bigger. After winning a brace of world titles and seeing them snatched away, nobody wants a bigger fight more than the battling Welshman.

Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz Full Card

Jack Catterall vs Harlem Eubank

Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez

Aqib Fiaz vs Alex Murphy

William Crolla vs Frazer Wilkinson

Leo Atang vs Jiri Surmaj

Skye Nicolson vs Carla Campos Gonzalez

Pat Brown vs Lewis Oakford

Alfie Middlemiss vs Mohammed Wako

Niall Brown vs Victor Ionascu

Joe Cordina vs Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz Predictions

Cordina is not a big puncher on the whole, despite breaking onto the world stage with that crushing of Ogawa. But he is also accustomed to fighting a higher level of foe than Gonzalez. If this guy is getting chinned by the likes of Garcia, then Cordina can stop him.

I think it will take a few rounds. Rhythm is hard to replicate. The prize ring under the lights and the noise is a different environment. The arena inspires an intensity. An opponent coming to take your head off is far more dangerous than even the finest sparring. 

With that being said, I fully expect Joe to find his range. I reckon by the middle rounds, we’ll be reminded why this guy used to rule the world. I’m backing a Cordina win in rounds 4-6 at ODDS.

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