Joe Cordina has demanded promoter Eddie Hearn buys him a Rolex watch worth over £57,000 after becoming world champion.
Hearn famously gifted Lawrence Okolie a Rolex Sky-Dweller after he won the cruiserweight world title last year, which with a chocolate dial can cost as much as $72,000, or just over £57,000. He had promised Okolie the reward for his first world honours, which he achieved when he won the vacant WBO belt by beating Krzysztof Glowacki at Wembley Arena.
Cordina brutalised Japanese world champion Kenichi Ogawa on Saturday inside two rounds in a stunning finish that has already been viewed millions of times on social media. And the first thing he told Hearn was that he wants a similar watch to the one Okolie was given last year.
Speaking with Pro Boxing Fans after his stunning victory, he explained that after seeing other fighters such as Okolie being given extravagant gifts, he felt he was owed something similar. "He's done it with Okolie, so why not?" Cordina asked. "I think a few other fighters were given watches as well.
"So the first thing I've said to him is 'I'll have the chocolate Sky-Dweller, thanks'. That's what I want, and if he wants to buy me something else, I'll have a Patek if he wants to give me one of them. I'm a watch guy, I've a few myself but you can't do one for one and not for the other, so I said 'chocolate Sky-Dweller'."
The only Sky-Dweller watch that comes with a chocolate dial is the Rose Gold Bezel Oyster Bracelet, which sells for tens of thousands. Hearn bemoaned the extra expense in a later interview with iFL TV, saying that it was "playing on his mind" after the fight.
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"Playing on my mind right now is that the first thing that Joe Cordina said to me in the ring was 'I will have a chocolate-dial Rolex, please'," Hearn said. "I was like 'for f***'s sake, these things are so expensive now!' But what's going on in my head now is when do we get him out?"
Cordina and Ogawa fought in front of a packed Motorpoint Arena in the Welsh capital, with thousands packing in to watch the hometown fighter become the first Welsh world champion since Lee Selby. The Barry native took home the gold in 2015 and defended it until 2018.
The fight was expected to be close on Saturday night, with Ogawa's sole loss having come almost ten years prior, and his world title credentials solidified. But Cordina stunned fans watching around the world with a stunning one-punch right hand that saw the fight stopped after just over four minutes.
