{"id":656173,"date":"2026-06-24T18:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/656173\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:49:10","slug":"welsh-boxer-joe-cordina-denied-entry-to-us-as-he-makes-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/656173\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh boxer Joe Cordina denied entry to US as he makes statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 34-year-old was due to fight Abdullah Mason in Cleveland next month<\/p>\n

Boxer Joe Cordina made the announcement on Instagram(Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n

Joe Cordina says he is “absolutely gutted” to have been forced to pull out of a WBO lightweight title fight after being denied a visa to enter the United States.<\/p>\n

The Welsh former super-featherweight world champion had been due to take on Abdullah Mason in Cleveland on Saturday, July 4. However, the 34-year-old has said on social media that the United States embassy in London turned down his visa application.<\/p>\n

“Just to let everyone know that I’m not going to fight,” Cordina said on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“It’s not injuries, I’ve seen a lot of [reports] saying injuries, but there’s no injuries. I’ve had a great camp. I was meant to fly over this week.<\/p>\n

“A couple of days back, I went to the US Embassy in London and they basically denied me a visa. I tried to explain certain things and I had all the paperwork to back it up and they wasn’t having it. They basically told me, ‘you ain’t getting in.’<\/p>\n

“It’s out of my hands and I’m absolutely gutted to become a three-time, two-weight world champion, plus fight for a world title in America was a goal of mine.<\/p>\n

“Feel bad for Abdullah, but obviously myself as well.”<\/p>\n

Cordina had been due to fly out to the US next week to put the final touches on his preparation, ahead of challenging for Mason’s WBO lightweight title.<\/p>\n

However, it is just another setback for the Welshman, who had been hoping to become a two-weight world champion.<\/p>\n

The 2016 Olympian was previously stripped of his IBF 130lbs title in 2022 when injury ruled him out of a mandatory defence against Shavkat Rakhimov.<\/p>\n

He would regain the belt, the following year, when he outpointed Rakhimov over 12 rounds.<\/p>\n

The bout in Cleveland would have been Cordina’s first shot at a world title since he lost that title to Anthony Cacace in 2024 – following a shock defeat that remains the only defeat of his professional career.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Cardiff<\/a> boxer has beaten Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz to claim the vacant WBO global lightweight title.<\/p>\n

Mason, who had won the title back in November by beating Britain’s Sam Noakes on points, is now reportedly set to fight Albert Bell.<\/p>\n

The shot at Mason would have been the Welshman’s first world title action since he lost that title again via an upset loss to Anthony Cacace in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 34-year-old was due to fight Abdullah Mason in Cleveland next month Boxer Joe Cordina made the announcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-656173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}