Nicky Jenman says he will be looking and feeling sharp when he defends his Southern Area middleweight title tomorrow night.

Jenman meets challenger Grant Dennis at the Metropole Hotel on Brighton seafront determined to hang on to the belt he won in a gripping ten-round war with Nathan Graham in February this year at the same venue.

The Brighton fighter, who has a 16-8-1 record, is just finishing a ten-week training programme and will head into the city today to complete his usual pre-fight rituals.

Jenman, who trains at the Brighton and Hove gym under Scott Welch and Anthony Brown, told The Argus: “I get a haircut and a shave before every fight I have and pop into town for a new pair of trainers and tracksuit .

“The way I look at it, if you feel good and look good, it makes you feel better. It’s when you go for a night out and put on a new shirt or a new suit, you feel a lot better. So mentally when you have a new haircut, a shave and smart clobber on then it makes you feel fresh.

“During my camp, I probably do look ****. I get people saying ‘are you alright?’ because I don’t have a shave and have long hair because I’m grinding and I’m working.”

Jenman says his training camp has gone really well and he is bang on weight thanks in part to nutritionist DD Deane.

And he inists defending this belt is just as important as having achieved his long-held dream of winning it.

Jenman said: “I always said winning the Southern Area would be my world title when I first set out as a professional but now trying to keep it can help me move on in the bigger picture.

“It means the world to me. I’ve got the belt and I don’t want to let go of it and must do everything I can to keep it.

“When I watch boxing, I see challengers win and I see how the champion’s feel and I actually feel gutted for them. It makes me more determined not to feel like that tomorrow night.”

Jenman had to dig deeper than he ever has to beat Graham to win the title but that fight has given the 30-year-old a new-found confidence.

He said: “I never really believed in myself. When we boxed for the Southern Area first time, we had three opponents to choose from and we didn’t really want Graham but he became mandatory.

“Better opponents bring out the best in me and winning that against someone who had boxed ten rounds before and for that title twice was tough.

“But now that’s what I am taking into this fight with me against Dennis. I’ve been knocked out, I’ve been ten rounds so it’s not a shock to me when these things happen.

“He has never been in those later rounds, the championship rounds, and never had someone who is coming forward who wants to fight.

“He is even down for another fight in December and he has says in an interview that he’ll beat me, then box for an English title and then fight in Las Vegas. He thinks this is a walk in the park, he’s definitely going to find out it’s not.”

Jenman would be happy not to be dragged into the trenches like the last fight, though.

He added: “The last fight was put forward for the Southern Area’s fight of the year.

“It was such a war and I put everything on the line to win the belt. Now I am putting everything on the line to keep that belt. It goes for everything in life, like a car or a girlfriend, if you have it and want, you’re not going to let it go.”

Brighton and Hove gym-mate Derek Renfrew makes his pro debut on the undercard while Worthing’s Sam Wicks also fights. Tickets are available at www.bhbpromotions.co.uk