Standing quietly in a corner of a Sports Centre in Oldham, the teenager good-naturedly answered questions from somebody who hadn’t yet grasped that isn’t the ideal time to introduce oneself to a fighter.

The following night, Dickens showed the footwork and variety that made him such an exciting prospect and stopped James Ancliff in two rounds.

Frighteningly, 15 years have passed. Dickens recently celebrated his 35th birthday and has had 42 fights, but he is still the same unaffected, funny and friendly character he was when he was stood on that badminton court all those years ago.

The former WBA junior lightweight champion is also very different.

Dickens (36-6, 15 KOs) enjoys days out with his family and has become something of a globetrotter. He recently spent a week with his coach, Albert Ayrapetyan, in Armenia and regularly spends time with his friends in Dublin. When in Liverpool, he trains and body spars with his teenage son and has taken over the keys to a gym just yards from the home he grew up in.

It won’t have escaped attention that a thread of boxing runs through most of those activities, but there are also things the younger Dickens would have never considered doing.

At first, boxing was a way for Dickens to escape the troubles of his childhood, but it quickly became more and more important to him.

He spent years training ferociously, going to bed early and waking even earlier to run through the streets of Liverpool in the dead of night. Dickens found God and became absolutely fixated on becoming a world champion.

He obviously always wanted to earn as much as he could from the sport to support his family and get through life, but money and attention were never the driving factors behind his effort.

Dickens happily admits that he would have been just as happy and proud had he won a world title in a closed gym without a single pair of eyes watching.

“I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t enjoy time with my kids. I couldn’t stay up late. I couldn’t do anything for 20 odd years because, if I’d have failed, I’ve had had myself to blame,” he told The Ring.

“Now, I can take my son to the gym and train alongside him. I can do things with the kids. It’s like I’ve become a better person outside the gym.

“I can enjoy the journey now. I can’t really explain it, but my life has changed since winning the world title.

“I’m just grateful to God that he blessed me so much. I look at some of these fighters and I think, ‘You were good enough to be a world champion. You f——d it up because you weren’t dedicated enough or you didn’t get an opportunity.’ There’s many reasons why and you’ve got to live there.

“If you were possessed, like me, to win a world title and you never, I can’t imagine what it’d be like living in purgatory like that after boxing.”

Lots of fighters talk about life changing after winning a world title. They are generally talking about receiving more money or recognition.

Dickens’ world title wasn’t a token reward for outstanding attendance or effort.

To be exact, he put in 14 years and 319 days of hard time as a professional before achieving his dream and that doesn’t take into account the years he spent fighting as an amateur.

Winning that world title lifted a weight off his shoulders, but it hasn’t sapped 1% of his love for the sport.

In March, he lost a 12-round decision and his WBA belt to Anthony Cacace, but he remains ranked ninth by The Ring and is determined to reclaim a title.

Like somebody rushing through a computer game and then playing through it again to find all the various side quests and features, Dickens is determined to enjoy every second of his climb back to the top.

“My goal was to touch that world title,” he said. “It was always my dream from being a kid. Once I’d touched it and achieved it, I have to make up new dreams don’t I? I’ve achieved what I wanted out of boxing.

“Now, it’s like I get to start my career all over again as a child if that makes sense.

“I’ve never enjoyed boxing because I’ve been in a race to get there. Now, I get to enjoy another career where I get to enjoy everything along the way to becoming a world champion.

“If I don’t get there, I already have. “