On a humid night at the 3Arena in Dublin, anthony cacace hugged the man he had just dethroned after 36 minutes of workmanlike boxing — a unanimous decision that returned the WBA world super-featherweight title up the M1 to Belfast. The embrace was brief, the cheers raw, and the victory definitive: a 37-year-old becomes a two-time world champion.
What happened in the fight that made Anthony Cacace a two-time champion?
The fight unfolded as a study in controlled strategy and moments of pressure. Jazza Dickens, the defending champion from Liverpool, opened rounds with urgency, piling on pressure when he needed a big finish to keep his title. He enjoyed a very positive round that stood out as his best three-minute stanza, and in the ninth he answered his corner’s warning that he had given the eighth round away by upping the tempo.
Yet Cacace remained composed. He mixed measured movement with well-timed right hands, ending rounds on stronger notes and showing the ringcraft of a fighter who believes he has done enough. In the 10th Dickens landed a looping left on the break from a clinch that may have frustrated the challenger, but midway through the 11th Cacace regained composure and landed a couple of right hands that closed the round on a high. When the final bell sounded both men embraced — a human punctuation mark on 36 minutes of tactical exchange.
What are Cacace and his team saying next?
The victory shifted attention immediately to what comes next. Frank Warren praised the boxer and his team, saying, “It’s all credit to him and his team. He’s got himself back together over the last few years and has shown himself what he is about, he has always had great skills and he should be really proud of himself. We’re going to get bigger fights for him. We’re coming back here, Ireland, this is his home and this is where we are going to make fights happen for him. We can get a big unification fight here, I will make sure that happens. ” That assessment framed the win as not just a moment of renewal but a platform for higher-stakes matchups.
Cacace himself set a clear ambition, saying, “I’m looking at bigger names now. I want to unify the division. I want [Emanuel] Navarrete next. ” Those words map a forward path from this victory toward the unification fights that would define a second reign at world level.
How does this result resonate beyond the ring?
The immediate human reality is simple: a veteran fighter reclaimed world status and will carry a belt and renewed expectations back to Belfast. The WBA world super-featherweight title will head back up the M1 with the new champion, a factual movement of hardware that signals opportunity for promoters, matchmakers, and the fighter himself. For Dickens, the loss underlined how razor-thin margins can be between holding and losing a title; for Cacace it was affirmation that patient, disciplined campaigning can yield a second crown even later in a career.
There are open questions that the result now forces into view: which opponents will be available for the unification fights that Cacace and his team seek, and how both men recalibrate after a bout decided by the judges? Those answers will shape the next chapter, but for now the image that lingers is of two men shaking hands in the centre of the ring — one celebrating a quiet resurgence, the other walking away with a task ahead.
Back in Dublin, as the crowd dispersed and the lights came down, anthony cacace walked up the apron with the weight of a title and the lightness of a man who smiled at the final bell and at the beginning of what he describes as bigger fights to come.
