Jazza Dickens vs. Anthony Cacace: Who has the edge heading into their fight?

Anthony Cacace made it clear during this week’s press conference that he wants to go down in boxing history as one of the greatest Irish fighters.

Having already reigned as a super featherweight world champion once, Cacace will look to become a two-time titleholder at 130 pounds Saturday night when he challenges WBA champ James ‘Jazza’ Dickens at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, and live on DAZN.

Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) enters this St. Patrick’s Day weekend headliner having produced a spectacular ninth-round TKO of Leigh Wood last May. Despite being the challenger, Cacace has been installed by oddsmakers as the favorite against the champion Dickens (36-5, 15 KOs), who pummeled Albert Batyrgaziev to a corner stoppage in July. That bout won him the interim WBA title before he was elevated to full status champion.

Will Cacace use his veteran savvy and style to become a two-time super featherweight world champion? Or will ‘Jazza’ utilize his own experience to record his first title defense? DAZN News analyzes who has the edge heading into the title bout.

Boxing Styles

Anthony Cacace can be deceptive off the feint, with a long left hand that the southpaw delivers straight through opponents’ guards or curls into a crunching uppercut. The Irish fighter’s ability to piece together punches in bunches makes him all the more of a complex puzzle to solve in real time.

His style will be up against the gritty sweet science James ‘Jazza’ Dickens offers.

The more experienced of the two, the WBA super featherweight champ works diligently to get inside of opponents, where he hits the body effectively and often surprises them with a compact overhand left.

To execute the latter, Dickens will have to get inside of Cacace’s reach, where the challenger owns eight inches of advantage.

Edge: Cacace

Power

Dickens touts six more knockouts to his ledger than Cacace, but the latter has recorded his stoppages against the stiffer competition including Leigh Wood and Joe Cordina. Plus, his volume punching bodes well toward power as Cacace is able to overwhelm opponents with high output as he demonstrated against Wood last spring in Nottingham, England.

Cacace takes the edge here as well.

Edge: Cacace

Mental Warfare

‘Jazza’ Dickens is a bit more battle-tested than Cacace with 41 fights to his name to the latter’s 25.

He will need to use every bit of his fighting IQ against an astute ring operator in Cacace.

Having to win the WBA strap in Istanbul helped with the experience he is likely to get tenfold in Dublin this weekend.

Dickens vows he is ready to make his first title defense and has the steely mindset to do it. Well, just enough to get the nod here, anyway.

Edge: Dickens

Who has the edge in Dickens vs. Cacace?

DAZN News has the edge going to Cacace, 2-1, as this fight could very well be decided by the Irishman’s ability to put the champ on the back foot — something we believe he can do with his bundle of sweet science skills to hear "and the new" by the night's end.

Dickens vs. Cacace only on DAZN

Watch Jazza Dickens versus Anthony Cacace only on DAZN subscription. Choose between a standard subscription or DAZN Ultimate Tier, which includes PPV fight nights.

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