Kid Galahad vs. Jazza Dickens this Saturday, September 14th

By Boxing News - 09/10/2013 - Comments

By Rachel Aylett: Boxing returns once again to terrestrial television in the UK on Saturday night (14 Sep) with an excellent British super-bantamweight title fight between two young unbeaten fighters.

This pits Sheffield’s Kid Galahad against Liverpool’s James “Jazza” Dickens for the above-mentioned title, which became vacant when Scott Quigg relinquished in May. Galahad is one of the fighters from Mick Hennessy’s stable that has been showcased by Channel 5 since they started showing boxing regularly at the end of 2011. The other featured fighters have been Tyson Fury, James DeGale and Chris Eubank Jr., who have all entertained enough for the broadcaster to continue with this project, albeit intermittently. Viewing figures have apparently been very good.

Saturday’s fight will not disappoint the viewers either. Galahad, along with currently world ranked Kell Brook, boxes from the famed Ingle gym in Wincobank, Sheffield, which has previously brought us the various talents of Prince Naseem Hamed, Herol Graham and Johnny Nelson. Unlike these unorthodox prototypes, Galahad boxes in much more of a traditional style. He appears to be similarly talented though and his team hope that, like his predecessors, he will go all the way to world honours.

This latest Ingle fighter has apparent star quality. He has not put a foot wrong so far in his professional career, save for suffering a knockdown at the hands of his toughest opponent to date, veteran Jason Booth. This has been rather forgotten though, as he immediately recovered from this and proceeded to thrash Booth over the 12 round distance. He has won his first 14 fights very comfortably indeed.

Galahad, real name Barry Awad, has terrific economy of movement as he glides around his opponents, spearing home his educated shots bang on target. The main knock on him is that he doesn’t carry enough of a dig to worry world class fighters. The accuracy of his shots though tends to sicken his opponents and they usually end the fight with swollen features and bewildered looks on their faces. An audience watching Galahad can be heard ooohing and aaahing as he slots his punches home, constantly knocking back the head of his opponent. He can almost be said to place his punches rather than throw them.

Dickens, on the other hand, is the antithesis of Galahad. His style is not aesthetically pleasing. He moves in a herky-jerky manner and always seems to do everything at 100 mph. There is a case that he wastes a lot of energy with unnecessary movement. He also throws unorthodox punches, and not just because he is a southpaw. He seems to loop his left hand, rather than throwing it straight. He often catches opponents unaware with this, so it can work to his advantage.

Jazza has an excellent amateur pedigree. He was English ABA champion in 2010 and boxed in the European Youth finals in 2009. He could potentially have made it onto the 2012 British Olympic team had he remained amateur. However, he decided to turn to the professional game and has won his first 16 fights.

All the advantages are in Galahad’s favour on Saturday night. He is boxing on his own promoter’s show and the fight is taking place in Rotherham, close to his Sheffield home. This means that the vast majority of fans will be there to support him. With Galahad’s superior skills, this all points to a win for him. I see him putting on another masterclass and either widely outpointing Dickens, or scoring a late stoppage due to facial injuries. It may be that he has to come through another knockdown though, from one of Dickens’ unorthodox shots.

A comprehensive victory for Galahad here will raise the prospect of Britain soon having three boxers in the world top 10 at super-bantamweight, the thought of which would have been laughed at a couple of years ago.

@RachelAylett1



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