Gary Lockett, before agreeing to be Joe Cordina’s new trainer, demanded to know whether his fellow Welshman was asking him because he had identified Lockett as the figure he needed for the next stage of his career, or simply because Cordina wanted to remain at home.
It is on Saturday at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England that Lockett, against Mexico’s Jaret Gonzalez Quiroz, will oversee one of Cordina’s fights for the first time.
Saturday’s contest represents the 33-year-old Cordina’s first since his permanent move up to lightweight. It is also his first since his first defeat, by Anthony Cacace in May 2024 when the Northern Irishman dethroned him as the IBF junior-lightweight champion, and his first since agreeing a new two-fight contract with his long-term promoter Matchroom.
Since splitting with the Essex-based Tony Sims – a trainer for whom Lockett has particular respect – Cordina had spent considerable time at the Ben Davison Performance Centre, also in Essex, under the guidance of Barry Smith.
He and Lockett have a long-term relationship built on his using Lockett’s gym in Cardiff during the times he wasn’t committed to a training camp elsewhere. Cordina was born in and remains in Cardiff with his wife Lauren, their son and two daughters. It was natural, therefore, for Lockett to question whether Cordina was attempting to recruit him because of the “convenience” an association between them would have represented, and, for his part, Lockett needed to know that he had Cordina’s full respect.
“The main thing for me, when Joe approached me and we sat down, I did have a question for him,” the trainer told BoxingScene. “I needed to know that he respected me as a coach and he wasn’t asking me out of convenience.
“‘I need to know that you respect me for what I am as a coach and not that you’re choosing me out of convenience’, and he said, ‘My dad [also Joe] has been telling me to come to you for the last year – I’ve discussed this with my dad, discussed this with my wife, discussed this with my friends, for more than a year. I don’t make decisions lightly. It’s been thought of. I needed to get my head around it for a good few months, but I think the time’s right’.
“Joe’s local to where the gym is. Joe’s been in and out of the gym for the last four, five years. He’s always trained with Tony Sims, so he’d do his camps there, but when he was at home he’d come to the gym to tick over. Could be once a week; could be twice a week; three times a week. But we’d always see him; he’s mates with the boys and mates with me as well, kind of. I’ve took him on the pads many times, for one or two rounds; mixing in with the boys and being a part of the session. That’s how I really know Joe. I knew him before then, but really speaking, he’s local to where our gym is, so he ticked over [here] before asking me to officially train him.
“About three or four months ago he touched on it. He came in and asked me then. I just said, ‘Yeah, okay – let’s have a sit-down and see if we can work something out’, and nothing came of it, ‘cause obviously he didn’t have a fight coming up. I think he was umming and ahing about what to do. He [then] had a meeting with Eddie [Hearn], and I asked him could he spar with Rhys [Edwards], and he said, ‘Can we have a sit-down?’.
“There was a couple of things he needed to work out and a couple of things I needed to work out as well. He’s been with Tony from the get-go, and Tony’s done an absolute marvellous job with him – a double world champion – but all he’s known is Tony. There was things he wanted to know – how we’d structure the sessions, ‘cause obviously I’ve got six, seven, eight in the gym, and most of the time I train them together. He needed to know that he was getting one-on-one time. Of course, I put time aside when the guys have got 12-rounds fights and title fights – that’s all he really wanted to know, [that] and sparring and the way things would be structured and what have you.
“I wanted him to be happy. I didn’t want him to turn around after two or three weeks and go, ‘I’m not getting enough of this’. I didn’t want that. At the start of every week I’d say, ‘Here’s the plan for the week – is there anything you want to add?’, and so far it’s been all good, and things have worked well.
“At some point in a man’s boxing career, when you’ve got children, you don’t really wanna keep travelling away. That was one of the reasons why he wanted to come back – to be with his family and not spend time away from his family. Lauren, his wife, has been on her own for a massive period of their children’s lives. It’s a really good thing for him. He’s living at home, and he’s recently said he’s started to enjoy training again. Perhaps being home was the best thing that could have happened for this stage of his career.”
Lockett featured prominently during Welsh boxing’s most successful ever era when, under the late Enzo Calzaghe during the mid-to-late noughties, Joe Calzaghe, Enzo Maccarinelli and Gavin Rees simultaneously held world titles. Lockett, trained by Calzaghe at the same talent-laden gym, challenged and lost to the then-feared WBO and WBC champion Kelly Pavlik in 2008, when Pavlik was motivated, undefeated, and in his prime.
If that fight proved the last of a career in which Lockett fought 32 times and, among other victories, defeated the world-title challenger Ryan Rhodes, in retirement he became the trainer to unexpectedly revive Macarrinelli’s career after the numerous setbacks Maccarinelli suffered in the years following his damaging defeat by David Haye. He also worked extensively with Liam Williams, another Welshman who went on to challenge for a world middleweight title, and in Cordina is guiding the fighter the great Joe Calzaghe considers Wales’ finest since Calzaghe’s retirement in 2008.
“There’s no deterioration or anything like that [in Cordina],” Lockett said. “He was struggling at the weight – I think that showed in a couple of his performances. Especially the one against [in November 2023, Edward] Vazquez. If you look at how he performed against [in April 2023, Shavkatdzhon] Rakhimov, and then how he performed against Vazquez, it’s day and night. It points to the fact that he was weight-weakened.
“If he was weight-weakened in the Cacace fight, the shot on the break certainly didn’t help. The move up in weight will do him the world of good, because he won’t have to lose anywhere near as much. I’m looking forward to a really good performance from Joe, to solidify the fact he’s a world-class fighter up at lightweight, and I believe he’s going to show that.
“I watched the [Cacace] fight at the time and he looked like a Rolls Royce, and then there was the incident with the punch on the break, and I just don’t think he was the same after. It dramatically changed things. I think that’s the view of the vast majority, as well. I don’t think there’s anything to fix. I don’t think he’s lacking in confidence; I don’t think his skills have changed; he’s the same fighter that he was when he was unbeaten. He very much thinks that as well. He was a quality amateur; he’s got better as a pro as well. He just has to do his thing and look after himself, and I believe he can be a world champion again.”
Cordina, under the guidance of Smith, was to challenge the revered WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson until an injury forced Stevenson’s withdrawal, and upon Stevenson’s return to the ring in February, it was Cordina’s fellow Briton, the less celebrated Josh Padley – following the late withdrawal of Floyd Schofield – who was instead opposite him in the ring.
The 17-1, 24-year-old Quiroz, on the occasion of his first fight outside of Mexico, will instead confront Cordina on Saturday on the undercard of Jack Catterall-Harlem Eubank.
Sims, who Lockett knows from his days as a fighter, had been open about Cordina’s increasing struggles with the junior-lightweight weight limit, and also about his desire for Cordina to one day fight Stevenson. Lockett, similarly, is confident in Cordina’s future prospects.
The Matchroom-promoted Stevenson, on July 12 at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York, fights William Zepeda, the ferocious Mexican who stopped, among others, Maxi Hughes, another British fighter on whose career Lockett had previously been influential.
There exists the expectation that Abdullah Mason and England’s Sam Noakes will contest the WBO title recently stripped from Keyshawn Davis; the Cuban Andy Cruz, another lightweight promoted by Matchroom, is on course to challenge the IBF champion Raymond Muratalla in the same way that the WBA champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Lamont Roach Jnr are on course for a rematch. The lightweight division, without question, is on the brink of significant change; victory on Saturday over Quiroz potentially presents a perhaps-revitalised Cordina with more than one lucrative avenue to pursue.
“The thing with Joe is to convince him not to train,” Lockett said. “We had a situation weeks ago where he sparred twice and he’s just knackerred. ‘What have you done the day before?’ He’s just grafted himself into the ground. ‘You have to understand that this isn’t the start of your career in your early 20s, Joe. You’re not over the hill – you’ve had one loss. You’re still in the prime of your career. But you’re 33, so you probably can’t do the things that you could when you were 25, 26, 27.’ It’s just a case of educating him to be a little bit smarter with your training. ‘You can’t be doing two mad sessions the day before when you’ve got a tough 10-round spar – you’re just not going to get the best out of your body.’ Fair play, he’s listened.
“He obviously trusts my advice. You could see he was torn between listening to his dedicated self and listening to someone who’s a little bit more experienced, but I knew that he would get the benefits out of chilling out a little bit more the day before sparring. These spars are the most important part, right? ‘If you’re strong and look good for those 10 rounds, you ain’t really doing a lot wrong. You don’t then need to go the next day and graft yourself into the ground and then make yourself super tired for sparring the day after.’ It’s about training smart, especially at this stage. I’m not saying he’s old – he’s a very young 33. He doesn’t drink; he’s always looked after himself; he’s still at the height of his career. But the body’s a little bit older than it used to be, so he has to be a little bit more intelligent with his training.
“He’s been training with the guys on and off for a few years, but everyone respects him – he’s very, very well thought of in Cardiff, and he hasn’t forgot his roots. He still bothers with the same people. We were on the pads and a local school brought kids down to watch Joe train. I know more than a handful of fighters who’d have gone, ‘I don’t want that; I don’t want them watching me; I’m right in the middle of training camp; important session, I’ve got a load of kids coming to watch me?’. He welcomed them in. There were about 15 of them there, and they were sat in chairs around the ring not saying a word; no naughtiness; no shouting; no backchat or anything. They were silent, just watching him train, and it was wonderful.
“I was bugging him to get his weight for his nutritionist, and he was, ‘Just wait a minute – let me finish talking’, and he stayed and talked to them for about half an hour after. He’s never forgot his roots. He’s stayed humble. He’s very well thought of locally, in Cardiff.”
