Casassi defeated Dickens to become the WBA super featherweight champion

Kakas emerged under the pressure of the “zombie” who had already brought a large crowd to raise the roof again while he waited for Dickens who seemed unfazed by the hostile environment.

The champion was posing a puzzle on Kakas for the first time since 2015, and his career-best win over Albert Batyrgaziev last summer had him open with confidence, targeting the body.

Kasasi, in impressive form, enjoyed success from the jab, looking to time the champion on his way inside, but he would receive a powerful counter of his own in the second.

It warmed up nicely after the first rounds as Dickens looked more comfortable, weaving in and out as he targeted the body and landed some raids from Kakas who temporarily joined him as a southpaw, but the Belfast man enjoyed success late in the third round with a landing jab with a right hand.

The fourth was wary as they both clearly respected each other as Dickens was happy to keep his distance, perhaps trying to tempt the rival to step in and punish him, but Kakas was not taking the bait.

There was a feeling that Kakas had had enough of this pattern and went straight into the attack to start the fifth attack, letting out an audible roar of intent, pushing Dickens back as he began to use his big voice as Dickens seemed to feel the pressure.

The champion settled down a bit in sixth place as he came up the left flank as the contest began to degenerate into a technical battle with success limited to individual shots in both cases, neither of whom were willing to gamble completely, yet Cacace seemed to be trying to do more.

It was Cacace’s turn to look a little uncomfortable in the ninth game as Dickens crossed with a left hand after the Belfast man turned to complain to the referee about a head collision – one of many in the fight.

However, it seemed on a knife edge heading into the final round of the fight, it wasn’t really cohesive and there was no feeling that those three minutes could prove decisive.

Dickens certainly opened the novel with more urgency as Cacace was fighting from behind, but he was still able to reclaim some rights of his own.

Both looked happy with their night’s work at the final bell, but there was a feeling that Belfast’s corner was the happier, and that was proven as Cakas returned to the top.