SPORTS: Axonics’ Raymond Cohen is a fan of taking on favorites

A No. 23 Dodgers jersey that once belonged to Kirk Gibson is framed on the office wall of Axonics CEO Raymond Cohen.

“Why not? One of the heroes of the game,” said Cohen of Gibson, whose famous 1988 World Series home run helped propel the Dodgers past the heavily-favored Oakland A’s that year.

Axonics has its own David vs. Goliath battle underway, a legal skirmish with device making giant Medtronic; see Peter J. Brennan’s page 26 story for some thought on the $164B-valued firm (NYSE: MDT) from Cohen.

Cohen tells Brennan that since he’s in Orange County, he’s also an Angels fan because “I don’t want rocks thrown at me!”

Wall Street certainly isn’t throwing rocks at Axonics. Since it went public on Halloween in 2018, its market cap has soared tenfold to $3 billion. The device maker’s revenue ballooned 4,509% in the past two years, making it by far No. 1 on the Business Journal’s annual list of fastest-growing publicly traded companies, which starts on p. 32.