{"id":808770,"date":"2026-10-20T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808770\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T16:28:09","slug":"former-boxing-world-champion-joe-cordina-cleared-of-assault-after-punching-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808770\/","title":{"rendered":"Former boxing world champion Joe Cordina cleared of assault after punching man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former boxing world champion Joe Cordina has been cleared of assaulting a man he punched outside a petrol station.<\/p>\n

The incident outside a garage in Pentwyn, Cardiff, in February led to the 34-year-old being denied entry to the US<\/a> for a WBO lightweight title clash.<\/p>\n

District Judge Charlotte Murphy found Cordina not guilty of assault by beating against Jamie O’Brien, 33, following a trial at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court.<\/p>\n

She said she was “satisfied” Cordina believed it was necessary to use force to defend himself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I am further satisfied that a single, measured, controlled punch was proportionate in the circumstances,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It is very easy to consider the defendant’s response by considering the CCTV in slow motion, however the defendant had a split second to consider his response to the shoulder barge.”<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Cordina said in a statement on social media that he was “hugely relieved” to put the incident behind him and was now focused “firmly on the future and getting back in the ring”.<\/p>\n

Cordina had been filling up his Land Rover before he approached O’Brien, who had been sitting on the pavement near the petrol station exit.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage showed O’Brien pushing Cordina using his shoulder, before the two-time IBF super-featherweight champion punched him with sufficient force to knock him to the ground.<\/p>\n

The pair continued to “remonstrate” with one another and exchange blows.<\/p>\n

O’Brien, from Pentwyn, previously pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police began to investigate the incident after footage of the altercation was circulated online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former boxing world champion Joe Cordina has been cleared of assaulting a man he punched outside a petrol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808770","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\/808770","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=808770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}