Highly-motivated super-bantamweight James Dickens has been warned he will face a “better” Tommy Ward when they meet in a British championship re-match.
So says Ward’s manager, Dave Garside, as two of Europe’s best 8st 10lb fighters await a date for their second shoot-out.
Tommy won the first last May, when he took the title off Jazza in Leeds, inflicting only the third defeat of the Scouser’s fight log.
The re-match is set for this May after Frank Warren won the purse bids for an interesting bout.
Dickens, speaking in an interview in Boxing News, said defeat at the First Direct Arena left a bitter taste in the mouth.
Ward won thanks to a technical decision after referee Michael Alexander ended the contest in the ninth round after the Neil Fannan boxer suffered a nasty cut above his left eye after an accidental clash of heads.
It meant the verdict went to the judges scorecards, the NE Security-sponsored fighter winning 87-85 (twice) and 88-84.
Jazza though told Boxing News: “It didn’t feel like I lost,
I was coming on strong and I could feel every shot hurting him.
“The tide had definitely turned.
“In a sporting sense, OK I can see how I’ve lost because the rules are the rules but from a fight perspective I felt like the winner.
“You’ll see an altogether different performance from me next time.”
Ward’s coach Fannan rates Dickens as Britain’s best super-bantam, outside his man.
Garside is equally complimentary but advises the challenger taking anything for granted.
“Jazza is good, but we see Tommy as the best out there,” said the former British heavyweight and cruiser star.
“Tommy was great that night in Leeds and deserved his win.
“Jazza is going to be facing an even better Tommy Ward when they meet.
“You have to remember that was his first 12-round championship fight and his first night under the TV lights.
“Since then he’s boxed again on BT Sport and gone through 12 rounds [against Sean Davis] and a couple of Saturdays ago he stopped a tough kid.”
Indeed he did. Ward clinched his third stoppage in his last five appearances with a fifth-round stoppage of Lesther Cantillano, a Spanish-based Nicaraguan who is the only man to take Joe Cordina all the way to the last bell.
“You can see Tommy is really sinking in his body shots at the moment,” added Garside. “But it’s his all-round game which makes him so good.”
