Joe Cordina vs Zelfa Barrett
Head of VIP Promotions, Steve Wood, has revealed that his super-featherweight charge, Zelfa Barrett (29-2, 16KO), will be IBF champion Joe Cordina's (16-0, 9KO) next challenger.
Having won the IBF Inter-Continental super-featherweight title during Matchroom Fight Camp in the summer of 2020, Barrett is ranked eighth in the IBF right now, a position that's due to go up following his recent win.
Known as the "Brown Flash", 29-year-old Mancunian Barrett was last in action on Cordina's undercard on April 22 in Cardiff.
A former English, Commonwealth and European champion, Zelfa defeated Jason Sanchez via unanimous decision at the Cardiff International Arena, knocking his man down in round five of 12, shortly before the headliners Joe Cordina and Shavkat Rakhimov took to the stage.
Trained by his uncle, Pat "Black Flash" Barrett, Zelfa challenged for the IBF super-featherweight world title against the aforementioned Rakhimov in November 2022 in Abu Dhabi, but was unsuccessful. The Manchester man was doing well, even scoring third round knockdown, but the champion rallied back to put pressure on the challenger until he stopped him in the ninth.
Now he gets to challenge for the same title against a different opponent. After such a successful event in Cardiff, the fight will likely head back to Wales for another momentous night.
Zelfa comes from a fighting family, being a cousin of Lyndon Arthur and nephew to former British and European champion and world title challenger, Pat Barrett, who is also his trainer. He is also a cousin of Manchester United left-back Brandon Williams.
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