![\"Jazza](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023bcde-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAnthony Cacace will chase the dream on St Patrick’s Day when he takes on Jazza Dickens for the WBA world super featherweight title at the 3Arena in Dublin.<\/p>\n
Belfast man Cacace is 36 now, and admits defeat to Liverpudlian Dickens would likely spell the end of his career.<\/p>\n
However, he’s refusing to even contemplate that possibility.<\/p>\n
Cacace is a man who lives by the idiom, no guts, no glory.<\/p>\n
In May 2024 he pulled off a shock win against Joe Cordina to win the IBF super-featherweight title on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undercard in Riyadh.<\/p>\n
Last May, he retained his IBO super-featherweight title with a ninth-round stoppage of Leigh Wood in Nottingham.<\/p>\n
Now he’s desperate to show what he can do in the Irish capital.<\/p>\n
“It’s mindblowing stuff,” Cacace told RT\u00c9 Radio 1’s Inside Sport.<\/p>\n
“I’m just really thankful and happy that I’m in this position.<\/p>\n
“Shout out Jazza Dickens giving me this shot. He didn’t have to fight me.<\/p>\n
“He’s come to Dublin, he’s basically an Irish lad himself, done his camps in Dublin and I heard he was living in a wee van by the arena there.<\/p>\n
“So the guy has served his dues and we’re going to put on a great show for the Irish fans.”<\/p>\n
The Cordina fight was “life changing”, Cacace says; a massive win that impacted his inner circle in a profoundly positive way. It also fed his belief and hunger for more glory nights.<\/p>\n
“It was the best experience, best feeling, one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my life ,” he added. “For my children and family, it’s massive.<\/p>\n
“We had no home and no nothing like that. So now we have a home and we’re happy and content and it’s just things that dreams are made of kind of thing.<\/p>\n
“A loss here is, you know, the end, nearly the end for me and as with my age and whatever else but I’m not going to lose. I’m going to win this fight.<\/p>\n
“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to be WBA world super featherweight champion on the 14th of March. No doubts.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be a real fight for 12 rounds and I plan on making it that way.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dickens, 34, (above) has an intriguing back story of his own.<\/p>\n
The Everton fan calls himself ‘Seamus’ such is his affinity to Ireland having spent a number of years in Dublin in the early part of his career. He has trained and sparred with Katie Taylor in the past.<\/p>\n
“I’m so happy to be back in Dublin, home from home,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I had some of the best days of my boxing career here in Dublin. It’s a privilege and an honour to be defending it in the 3Arena.<\/p>\n
“I know that the Irish fans are screaming for big nights like this.<\/p>\n
“The people who I met here, I’ll have friends forever. Mark Kennedy, Peter Taylor was my coach for a few years there.<\/p>\n
“Lads in the gym, all the boxers, just some of the best days of my life. I met people who have become friends for life.<\/p>\n
“I was fighting in December (against Hayato Tsutsumi in Saudi Arabia) and the fight fell through one week before. I didn’t know how long we were going to have to wait.<\/p>\n
“Frank Warren was obviously looking for a date for Anto, around Paddy’s Day, and maybe it just aligned that way, and it fell right into place.<\/p>\n
“Since then we’ve signed a promotional deal with Frank Warren, and I’ve signed for the biggest fight of my career.”<\/p>\n
A bumper card will feature two IBO world title fights, with Dubliner Pierce O’Leary taking on England’s Mark Chamberlain for the super lightweight belt and Jono Carroll going up against Belfast’s Colm Murphy at super featherweight.<\/p>\n