Regis Prograis has announced his retirement following his defeat to Conor Benn.
Prograis came up short in his battle with Benn at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, suffering a unanimous decision loss after 10 rounds despite a brave effort from the Louisiana man.
Heading into the bout, it was heavily rumoured that Prograis was suffering from an injury, and – despite understandably denying it in the build-up – he confirmed it to be true whilst talking to Ring Magazine, along with explaining his decision to hang up the gloves.
“Going into this fight I knew I was going to retire, this is my last fight. I knew this months ago this was going to be my last fight but I just didn’t tell anybody.
“I’m not going to lie, I was terrified going into this fight. The rumours and stuff about me being hurt, that was true. I was terrified. I didn’t know if it was going to hold up. My son is right here, I told him when you’re scared of something you have to go through it.
“I’m not going to lie I wanted to pull out of this so bad. A month ago I wanted to pull out of this fight but I didn’t. I kept pushing and pushing. Even today I was thinking of pulling out on the day of the fight, but I went through with it and I’m so glad I did.
“It’s emotional for me because I knew this was going to be my last fight. This was a great fight for my last fight. Somebody like Conor Benn in an arena like this with 70,000 people in a stadium. I loved that. I couldn’t ask for a better going away party, it was perfect, literally perfect. This was a perfect ending to my story.”
Prograis had an extremely impressive career which saw him become world champion on two occasions, walking away from the sport after also sharing the ring against the likes of Josh Taylor, Jose Zepeda, Devin Haney and Joseph Diaz.
