By Keith Idec

Joe Cordina’s boxing ability, defense and movement enabled him to comfortably beat countryman Gavin Gwynne on Saturday night.

The undefeated Cordina defeated Gwynne on all three scorecards to win their 12-round battle between Welsh lightweights by unanimous decision on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Luke Campbell undercard at O2 Arena in London. Judges Howard Foster (116-110), Victor Loughlin (116-111) and Mark Lyson (116-110) each scored their unremarkable bout for Cardiff’s Cordina by big margins.

Cordina and Gwynne each had a point deducted for fouls, which accounted for the unusual scoring totals in a fight that didn’t include any knockdowns.

Cordina, 27, upped his record to 10-0 (7 KOs). Gwynne, 29, lost for the first time as a pro (11-1, 1 KO).

Cordina let his hands go during the 12th round. He caught Gwynne with several rights and lefts in those three minutes, and mainted complete control of their one-sided bout.

Cordina clipped Gwynne with a short right hand during the 11th round. By then, the light-punching Gwynne obviously needed a knockout to win.

Following a ninth round in which he got hit, Cordina tightened his defense during the 10th round and got back to out-boxing Gwynne.

A right uppercut by Gwynne snapped back Cordina’s head in the ninth round. That was the flushest punch Gwynne landed in the fight, but it didn’t hurt Cordina.

Toward the end of the ninth round, however, Gwynne had a point deducted because he continually hit Cordina behind his head.

Cordina’s combination of a right to the head and left hook to the body slowed down Gwynne during the eighth round. Cordina connected with another right-left combination to Gwynne’s head later in the eighth round.

A very low blow by Cordina caused a break in the action at about the midway mark of the seventh round. Before the fight resumed, Latham deducted a point from Cordina, who previously was warned for hitting Gwynne behind his head.

Gwynne caught Cordina with a short left hook at about 1:10 of the sixth round.

Cordina’s defense prevented Gwynne from accomplishing much in the fifth round, when he slipped and blocked almost all of the punches Gwynne threw. Gwynne was warned with 15 seconds to go in the fifth for hitting Cordina behind his head.

Cordina was warned about 40 seconds into the fourth round for hitting Gwynne behind his head. Cordina’s overhand right drilled Gwynne as Gwynne moved forward later in the fourth. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.