By Scott Gilfoid: The terribly over-matched James “Jazza” Dickens (22-1, 7 KOs) doesn’t seem to realize just how over his head he is for his fight tonight against WBA Super World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KOs). The 25-year-old Dickens, who is little more than a fringe contender at best, will be facing Rigondeaux in what will likely be a friend and supportive crowd at the Ice Arena Wales, in Cardiff, Wales. Dickens has been flapping his gums, saying he’s going to ‘shock the world’ against Rigondeaux. Is that going to happen? Nah, Dickens is pretty much the sacrificial lamb in this one. He’s going to get worked over by Rigondeaux big time.
The fans will surely be on Dickens’ side when he gets in the ring with the talented 35-year-old Rigondeaux. Unfortunately, the fans won’t be able to run interference for him to keep Rigondeaux off of him, because he’s clearly going to be taking a royal beating from the talented Cuban.
This fight figures to be a dreadful mismatch with Rigondeaux clowning Dickens for as long as the fight lasts until he decides to take him out. I don’t think Rigondeaux will make a clown out of Dickens, but I do believe it’ll come close to that.
“It is not black and white to say that he is unbeaten so he can’t be beat – he can be beat,” Dickens said to the dailystar. “He is a human like I am.”
It’s always sad when over-matched fighters resort to the old, ‘He puts his pants on the same way I do’ bit. When you see an outclassed fighter like Dickens resorting to that kind of thing, it tells you that they’re probably wrestling with their own internal demons to try and convince themselves that they can win the fight.
It appears that Dickens realizes that he doesn’t have a chance in a million, so we’re now seeing him falling back on the old ‘he can be beat’ and ‘he is human like I am’ bit. It’s so sad. Dickens doesn’t want to admit that he’s not good enough to win the fight. That’s okay, because he’ll meet his destiny tonight against Rigondeaux, and he might not like what he finds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCifnw-PwkE
Rigondeaux is a much avoided former two-time Olympic gold medalist. His entire pro career has been one of him trying to get the top guys to fight him and mostly being avoided by them. The only talented guy that did fight Rigondeaux was Nonito Donaire, who he easily beat by a 12 round decision several years ago in 2013. Rigondeaux was never able to get the likes of Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg to fight him. I suspect that he never will.
As predictions go for tonight’s contest, I see Rigondeaux carrying Dickens for five or six rounds in order to toy with him in front of his own fans. By the 6th round, Rigondeaux will grow weary and bored of propping Dickens up and will put him out of his misery with either a left to the midsection or a left to the head.
Dickens might try and be brave by getting back to his feet, but Rigondeaux will knock him on his backside for the final knockdown. I can’t see the referee letting the fight turn into a comical farce, so he’ll probably stop it after the second knockdown.