Don’t call it a comeback.

As technically good as Jazza Dickens was during his upset win over Zelfa Barrett on Saturday night, the victory was a reward for the 33 year-old’s perseverance and determination.

The Liverpudlian has been looking for a route back to prominence since losing an IBF featherweight title fight to Kid Galahad back in 2021.

Forced to rebuild away from the big shows and bright lights, Dickens toiled away. In October 2022, he won the IBO belt by beating the solid South African, Lerato Diamini, but lost the title in his first defence when a drastic and unwise weight cut played its part in a tenth round knockout loss to Hector Sosa.

That defeat finally persuaded him to finally leave behind the featherweight division and Saturday night’s win was his third since belatedly stepping up to 130lbs.

Over the course of ten rounds, Dickens, 35-5 (14 KOs), put himself firmly back in the mix for big fights. Having been cast into the wilderness, he found himself backstage at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena with a new WBA title belt and a queue of people waiting for put a camera in his face.

Having worked long and hard to get back, he wasted little time in laying the groundwork for his next fight.

Former WBA featherweight champion, Ray Ford, was scrolling through his phone when he happened up an IFL video of a delighted Dickens calling him out.

The slick New Jerseyan’s typing skills are as quick as his southpaw jab. He quickly responded and the following exchange took place;

FORD - If I can’t get an opponent, let’s do it.

DICKENS - You don’t need to look for opponents I’ve told you it’s on.

FORD - *a more worthy opponent* my bad, let’s get it tho.

An official fight contract is far longer than 140 characters, but X does play a useful role in cutting through promotional tape and bringing fighters to the negotiating table.

Ford has been regularly linked to a fight with Barrett since he moved up to the 130lb division after losing his WBA title to another Liverpudlian, Nick Ball, in Saudi Arabia last June.

As Matchroom now have options on Dickens following his impressive win over Barrett, it makes sense that he takes the Mancunian’s place.

On Sunday morning, Dickens was driving through Liverpool on his way for a run - which may seem insane to most people reading this but is perfectly in character - and recorded a message for his own YouTube channel.

“I haven’t been away. People say, ‘How did you pull that off? You rolled back the clock’ but the truth is, I haven’t rolled nothing back,” he said. “I’ve just been avoided and there’s many Matchroom fighters who have turned fights down against me.

“Eddie Hearn will be able to tell you that because they’ve put the fights to me and I’ve accepted every single fight so, first of all, I have to say thank you to Zelfa Barrett for taking the fight.

“When I look back now, I couldn’t believe he took the fight. It was a crazy situation. Zelfa is sixth in the world [with the IBF, Barrett was also positioned at number seven with the WBA] and he’s fighting me. I can’t see the logic there. I can’t see the logic from Matchroom. Maybe they thought I was finished. Maybe I was finished and I didn’t know about it and I just turned up last night.”

The win was all the more impressive given Dickens’ preparation.

Dickens is entirely dedicated to his craft but has been something of a maverick over the last couple of years. When the fight was announced five weeks ago he had parted ways with Joe McNally’s gym in Liverpool and was without a trainer. He decided to decamp to Dubai to train with Albert Ayrapetyan.

As a youngster, Dickens was a whirl of clever, fast footwork and a master of using angles.

Over the years he has lost some of that flair and imagination but, on Saturday, he never stopped moving and offsetting Barrett. Dickens may not have been away, but it did look like he has rediscovered himself in more ways than one.

“A lot of people commented on my footwork,” he said. “I think we saw spells of Albert’s training in my footwork. That’s really nice to see that it’s working and it’s exciting for me because I know that we’re only at the start of where we can go with it. It’s fantastic.

“I just feel like that little chapter from when we lost that world title fight - when we killed ourselves to make the weight - it was put to bed last night. I accepted the Lord’s challenge. It weren’t always easy. It was a long, dark road but I feel like we’ve come out on the other side.”