‘I invest in expensive art so I don’t hit the canvas when my boxing career ends’
Joe Cordina is usually avoiding the canvas – but he’s been collecting them to ensure he’s drawing a big pension when he retires from boxing.
The Welsh fighter looks to become a two-time world champion when he faces Shavkat Rakhimov for his old IBF super-featherweight crown tonight in Cardiff.
Cordina, 31, is back after a hand injury as he looks to regain the belt which was stripped from him over inactivity. But in between training sessions, the Rio Olympian has been perusing art in Mayfair and Marylebone shops which is not a usual hobby for fighters.
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Cordina, 31, is back after a hand injury as he looks to regain the belt which was stripped from him over inactivity. But in between training sessions, the Rio Olympian has been perusing art in Mayfair and Marylebone shops which is not a usual hobby for fighters.
Cordina said: “Funnily enough I was in Marylebone doing my strength and conditioning and I went into the art shop and the guy was like, ‘you’re that boxer aren’t you?’ I said, “Yeah I have a go’ and he went ‘Joe?’ and he went, ‘yeah’ so I started talking to him about the art.”
Cordina’s love for the paint strokes as well as the punches means he has now turned it into an investment but the London prices are still too much for the purses he currently earns in the ring.
“I’ve been buying art in Cardiff,” he said. “There are only two artists I really look for: The Connor Brothers and Mr Brainwash. That is popular art at the minute, particularly in the UK. I’m starting to build up a little collection.
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(Image: GETTY)
“I’ve always liked art and one day I saw a Muhammad Ali painting in a shop. I walked in and had a look at it, it was sold already. It was a few quid as well. I had a look around and started chatting to the lady there, Cath, in the Whitewall Gallery in Cardiff.
“From there I bought my first piece and then a few other little ones from some other shops. Not all high end but the one from Whitewall was, it was a Brainwash.
“I’ve been steadily building it from there so any time I see an art shop with Brainwash, Connor Brothers or anyone like that I’ll always go in and have a look to see if I can get a bargain. Well I say a bargain, they’re worth a few quid. They vary from two to three grand up into the hundreds.”
(Image: Huw Fairclough/Getty Images)
Cordina is as happy spending his time after fights looking at art in some of London’s fanciest shops as he is partying with his pals. If he becomes the first man to beat Tajikistan’s Rakhimov tonight in the Welsh capital then he plans to fly to Vegas or Cancun to celebrate before going on to watch gym mate John Ryder take on Canelo Alvarez in Mexico on May 6.
But he hasn’t got a particular painting in mind if he does become a two-time world champion this weekend. The money will go on his other investment plan – watches. Although he’s hoping his promoter Eddie Hearn will deliver one, too.
Cordina added: “I’m still on the watches. I don’t know quite enough about art to be buying big pieces but if I see one that’s for me I will buy it.
“The watches are the main thing for me. I’ve got my eye on one and hopefully when I win this second world title fight maybe Eddie will pull his finger out and buy me one then. I’ve got my eye on one.”
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