It took 12 rounds and a majority decision for Joe Cordina to retain the IBF world super-featherweight title against Edward Vazquez on Saturday night, but according to Cordina the fight wasn't "hard."
The two men went toe-to-toe in Monaco in a thrilling bout, with Vazquez using his speed and aggressiveness to neutralize Cordina's size and strength advantages.
What entailed was a bout between two evenly matched fighters at the top of their game, with Cordina receiving the nod from the judges in a close call.
Despite the close nature of the scorecards, Cordina insisted after the fight that things weren't as tough as they seemed.
"It wasn't the case of a hard fight, he's tricky and he's f—ing clever," Cordina said.
"He's a good fighter. He's tricky, he's cute, but I didn't really have to work hard for it, it was just trying to track him down and pin him."
Vazquez's shiftiness in the ring caused Cordina to be on the back foot for long stretches of the fight, with the Wales-born champion admitting that his coach thought the two men were even after 10 rounds.
However, Cordina felt that he turned up the intensity enough in the closing rounds to earn his victory outright.
"I didn't box my best but at the same time I think I did enough to win the fight at least by a couple of rounds," he said.