Winning. It’s what the Dickinsons love doing.
And Co Durham’s Mark Dickinson is out to emulate uncles Jon Lewis and Travis on Friday night in Altrincham, where he is attempting to deprive Reece Farnhill of his relatively-recently acquired English super middleweight title.
The 10-round domestic dust-up looks a gem in Matchroom’s latest NXTGEN show at Planet Ice, which will be shown on DAZN.
“Winning the English title will probably be the best moment of my career,” declared Mark at the pre-fight media conference at Manchester Airport.
“My dad’s brothers were both English champions and I think it’s only right that I’ll be the third to do it.”
Jon Lewis was the English cruiserweight king while ‘Tasty’ Travis was a winner at light-heavy.
The brothers were both winners of the very popular Prizefighter tournament, very much an old Matchroom favourite back in the day on Sky Sports.
Now it’s the turn of Mark Dickinson to add his name to the roll of honour, though a hard night awaits.
Farnhill v Dickinson is what you can only describe as a proper fight between two lads scaling the ladder.
Undefeated Reece (11-0) has already made it up a couple of rungs, having won the Central Area title in his ninth pro outing by comprehensively outpointing Sheffield’s Nicolie Campbell at Oldham Leisure Centre.
Next up was the first of his North-East treble.
In a showdown of the Area champs, Farnhill stopped Seaham’s Northern king Adam Hepple in the fourth round, his fourth ‘W’ inside the distance.
That set him up with a crack at the vacant English super middleweight crown last October at, you won’t need three guesses, Oldham Leisure Centre.
Up against former Middlesbrough middleweight Ryszard Lewicki, Reece emerged as champion via a split decision, with two judges scoring it by two and three points, with Terry O’Connor marking it for the ex-Polish start 96-95.
“He’s a tough lad, he’s game, strong and has a high work-rate,” said Dickinson. “He can box a bit as well. It’ll be an entertaining fight.
“Obviously with my style as well, I don’t like to take a backwards step. I think we’ll steal the show to be honest.”
While Farnhill has done 90 per cent of his fighting in his native Lancashire, Dickinson has lived a more cosmopolitan existence.
As part of the GB Boxing programme, he represented Queen and country at the World Championships and European Games before turning pro with Ben Davison in Essex in 2021 and signing with Probellum during their time in the sport.
He returned home to be reunited with ex-amateur coaches Graeme Rutherford and brother Jacob Dickinson and is now based in Fencehouses at the Dickinson School of Boxing.
The West Rainton star has enjoyed a couple of cracking wins, including a points win over Bury’s Ben Ridings before stopping Chatham’s Grant Dennis at 1-10 of round five in Newcastle in November 23.
Mark lost his unbeaten record in July, when he lost to Japanese KO specialist Kazuto Takesako over 10 rounds in Suita, Japan.
“I don’t blame making middleweight for my loss in Japan,” said the 25-year-old, who returned to the winner’s enclosure late last year in Houghton, where he outpointed Manchester-based Iranian Bahadur Karami to take his record to 7-1.
“I had a very good hard 10-round fight in Japan.
“I got hurt very early, and I came back. I’ve just got all sights set on Friday night now.
“As Reece mentioned, I’ve got a tough fight, but he’s got a tough fight as well.
“I’m very versatile, I can box in many different ways, and I just can’t wait to show it on the night.”
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Mark Robinson/ Matchroom
