Jazza Dickens will defend his world title against Anthony Cacace.
What do Jersey Joe Walcott, Archie Moore, and James ‘Jazza’ Dickens have in common?
The three demonstrated remarkable resilience in their careers from their professional debut to winning a world title. It took Walcott (heavyweight) 21 years in 1951, Moore (light heavyweight) 17 years in 1952, and Dickens (junior lightweight) 14 years and 319 days.
Dickens joined the list of boxers who have won their first world title with the longest time since their professional debut, when he was promoted from interim WBA champion to full world champion in December, after Lamont Roach was stripped of the world belt.
Dickens (36-5, 15 KOs), 34 years old and from Liverpool, will step into the ring as a world champion on Saturday for his first defense against Northern Irishman Anthony Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs), 37 years old, at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. Dickens, who traveled from his training base in Dubai after the region was bombed, was scheduled to face Japanese fighter Hayato Tsutsumi at the Mohammed Abdo Arena in Saudi Arabia in December, but it was canceled after an injury to Tsutsumi.
While there are similarities to Cacace’s late career (he stopped Joe Cordina to win the IBF junior lightweight title at 35), Dickens’ story is very different from that of superstar world champions like Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue and Ryan Garcia.
Dickens has had to struggle without the backing of a major promoter, dealing with knockout defeats, inactivity, and boxing politics. His career has been very different from the attention and wealth enjoyed by his fellow English boxers Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Conor Benn.
Sometimes, Dickens wondered if his career would ever reach the same heights as in 2016, when he challenged Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux for the WBA junior featherweight world title and was stopped at the end of the second round with a broken jaw.Dickens transformed his career in 2025. First came a points victory over 10 rounds against Zelfa Barrett, before Dickens knocked out Russian Albert Batyrgaziev, gold medalist at the 2021 Olympic Games, in the fourth round to win the WBA interim super-lightweight title in Turkey.
There were moments when I thought: ‘What is all this about?’ When it was really difficult.
Dickens
I believe that if you listen, God teaches you, but sometimes I wondered: ‘What are you trying to teach me?’. I am glad I was patient all these years because I finally got the opportunities when nobody believed in me. Opportunities have been the most important thing that has happened, that’s why I am here now as a world champion.
Dickens
Those opportunities came when people thought it was over. When I got knocked out [Hector Andres] Sosa [in July 2023], people thought it was over. There were things happening behind the scenes before that fight, but I got knocked out and it didn’t look good.
People thought it was over after that fight and Batyrgaziev thought it was going to be an easy fight against me, but I came out and dominated.Like ring legends Moore and Walcott, Dickens has shown unwavering perseverance in achieving his goal.
Dickens, who has won four fights since his last defeat, has repeatedly rebuilt his career. After being stopped by Kid Galahad in 2013, Dickens suffered consecutive defeats to Rigondeaux and Thomas Patrick Ward in 2016 and 2017. After another defeat to Galahad in 2021 and the crushing defeat to Sosa, Dickens began 2025 far from the world title contention.
I joined my coach Albert Aryrapetyan a year ago and he has been a fundamental part of my career, moving to Dubai to train.
She was the only person who responded to me at that moment when I needed a coach. The phone didn’t ring, nobody wanted to know, but since I became champion it hasn’t stopped ringing. We got together before the fight with Barrett and Albert devised a good game plan for that fight and for the fight with Batyrgaziev.
Since those defeats against Rigondeaux and Galahad, I’ve always been in the gym trying to improve, trying to develop, that hasn’t changed. What has changed? Maybe mentally I’ve grown, as you do in any sport or job with age.
After having traveled one of the longest journeys to victory for a world title in boxing history, Dickens now also manages boxers under the banner of Integrity Boxing Management with Mitchell Walsh.
We call it Integrity Boxing, because there isn’t much integrity in boxing.
We don’t do it for a fee, it’s a pleasure for me and my fee is to see the smiles on the faces of the boxers and their families.
