“It feels the very same,” Jazza Dickens replied to BoxingScene on how it feels now he holds a world title following a tumultuous 15-year-career.
“I’m still not the hardest man in the house,” he jokes. “The kids bully me around and stuff. It just feels the very same, but this is a special place in my heart where you do get a great feeling to be able to call yourself champion of the world.”
The 34-year-old claimed the WBA interim 130lbs title following a stunning upset of previously-unbeaten Russian Albert Batyrgaziev in Turkey last year at an IBA event. He was upgraded to the full title after Lamont Roach was stripped ahead of his 140lbs with Isaac Cruz - the WBC interim beltholder at the weight - at the end of the year.
Dickens, 36-5 (15 KOs), was slated to defend on December 27 against Hayato Tsutsumi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The bout was shelved when Tsutsumi suffered an eye injury during training camp.
Regardless of boxing’s politics, Dickens is where he always hoped he would be one day.
But, asked whether there were times he thought he might make a living out of the sport but never win a world title, the southpaw counters: “No, more the other way around. I mightn’t make a living out of it. I mightn’t be rich but I will be world champion. That was always the case. Do you know what I’ve found along the way? This is good for any of the kids who are coming up. It’s harder to actually get a shot than it is to win a world title. If I got 10 world title fights, I’m going to win a good few of them at least for getting a shot. I’ve had three. It’s actually harder to get the shot. You’ve just got to be sticking with it and keep on working hard and training and being ready.”
Those five pro losses came to Kid Galahad (twice), Hector Sosa, Guillermo Rigondeaux, and Thomas Patrick Ward (fight cut short from a head clash), but there was not one that hurt more than any other.
Dickens has never liked having an ‘L’ stuck on him.
“I still remember losing my first fight. Still hurts,” he smiles. “It’s like, as an amateur, as a kid.
“Still hurts.”
He was well-beaten in the world title fight with Galahad. They’d boxed for the British title years earlier and sparred one another numerous times since.
That was a painful loss, but perhaps only more so physically, he recalls.
“I’m not saying it hurt more,” he explains. “Maybe physically, but I don’t know. No, it didn't hurt more than any other because sometimes you take a beating like a man and I think it’s all part of it. You win some, you lose some and that’s just the way it goes. Losing is losing.”
Dickens defends his title in Dublin on Saturday against the in-form Anthony Cacace at the 3Arena. And Dickens is relishing the trip across the Irish Sea to face the Belfastman.
“[It’s] a homecoming for me in Dublin,” Dickens explains. “I lived there for a few years at the time with [trainer] Peter Taylor out there in Dublin. I loved it. I met mates I’ll have for the rest of my life out there. Everyone can come and it’s also close to Liverpool. There’s loads of scousers coming, too. The ticket sales are unbelievable. I’m very, very grateful to be honest. I’m happy for them lads in Ireland, the youngsters who get a chance to be on the card because they’re also my mates. I couldn’t bring them back to Liverpool – yet.”
Dickens said he has spoken to Everton Football Club about putting on a future fight there, and he hopes he can get the stars to align.
“That would be amazing, the [new] Hill Dickinson Stadium, but other than that, Dublin’s my second home,” he continues.
Even though they’ve spent years campaigning at different weights, given the amount of time Dickens had in Dublin and sparring in Belfast, he is surprised he and Cacace have done nothing together before.
“He was a bit like me really,” says Dickens. “He was struggling to get his opportunity for years so I probably did not even know that he’s still fighting. If you don’t see the fighters on the telly then you don’t even know if they’re still active. We get that question a lot. ‘Yeah, I’m still fighting.’
“I’m saying every day of my life – ‘You just haven't seen me on the telly.”
Cacace has taken the scalps of Joe Cordina, Josh Warrington and Leigh Wood in the brightest period of the 37-year-old’s career.
“Unbelievable run of form,” admits Dickens. “Same form that Josh Warrington was in when he was on his run against the great Lee Selby and Carl Frampton. Same form, really.”
But Dickens only really knows the cliff notes. He doesn’t watch boxing and only looked at some footage of Cacace properly for the first time recently although he knew who Cacace was.
“When I was training in Dublin, there was a few lads in the same gym from me, from up north, he was at the gym, the Holy Trinity Boxing Gym with him when he was a kid and he was the one that got away before he actually got his shot and he won his world title and he beat Cordina. He was the one they would all talk about – who is the best and they can’t believe that he never won a world title. And then he went on to win a world title. And you could see that he stayed and remained a humble champion and he motivated the Belfast lads. So that's what I knew about Cacace. “He was the one that got away and he had all of his talent but he never got a chance to show it. Then he did.”
Dickens is in a spot he’s always wanted to be in, but he is aware of the talent the man facing him has.
He is taking nothing for granted, not his title, not his career, and not being able to call himself the champion.
A man of faith, the Liverpool man remains grateful to all those who have supported him along the way, including former manager Tony Bellew, who he credits with landing him two world title fights and never taking a penny for his efforts.
“Last time I lost [to Sosa], boxing slipped through my fingers,” he recalls. “The whole world of boxing didn’t want to know. My career was done. Well, in the eyes of the boxing public. I handed it all over to the Lord and Saviour and I said, ‘Know what, Lord? I’m at the lowest low and I trust in you and I know that your will is better than mine, so I trust in you.’ And He brought me from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. I’ll never forget the moments when I gave it over to the Lord. The Lord’s got a plan for me, what he always had planned for me. I’ll just tick off whatever he wants me to – or I won’t. I accept the Lord’s will.”
There was not one moment that steered Dickens towards religion, more so “circumstances in my life.”
“I’ve had a bit of an unconventional life,” he adds. “There were circumstances that brought me low. They say, when you need God, that’s when you pray the most and I needed God. That’s when he showed himself to me at the age of 18. I was very lucky to find God so young.
“I managed to prevent a lot of damage in my life because I found God so young and I tried to live by God’s law. I was very lucky and blessed.”
Does that mean he hit a rock bottom at 18?
“No, no,” he sighs. “Eighteen was when my life started to get good. I got a bit of independence. My life from the start, it was tough growing up. The circumstances I had, which I’m not going to go into… but 18 was quite pleasant at that time.
“Then, when I found the Lord, when I found God, it got better and better and better and still getting better today.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
