BY THOMAS GERBASI
REGIS Prograis pauses, choosing his words carefully before answering a question that was either the simplest or the most difficult. The Louisiana native agrees that it’s the latter when asked what he misses the most about being a world champion.
“Well, everybody still calls me ‘Champ’ because I did it twice already,” the two-time super-lightweight king chuckles. “But it is the most difficult question to answer. It’s just like, man, for me, being back on top again and having a belt and being able to say, ‘I am the world champion’ right now, that’s the main thing.”
The urgency is evident, even if it’s only a little over eight months since he lost his WBC 140-pound title to Devin Haney last December. Adding to Prograis’ frustration is the postponement of an August 24 bout with Jack Catterall, due to an injury suffered by the Brit, to October 26, which interrupted a training camp in Las Vegas and paused his plans to get back in the championship conversation. So now he regroups, not in the “fight capital of the world,” but in Houston with coach Bobby Benton.
“I have to take the right amount of breaks, take the right time off and stuff like that,” he said of adjusting to the new date. “They kind of did the same thing with the last fight with Devin Haney. At first, it was supposed to be October and I was training hard and sparring and then they changed it until December. So I’m kind of prepared for it right now, to be honest. I feel like maybe this was a plot to do something to me, maybe mentally, but it happened to me already before, so whatever games are going on, on to it right now.”
Prograis says this matter-of-factly, like this is simply the cost of doing business in this sport, especially when you’re not the A-side anymore. Losing the belt to Haney meant that the 35-year-old wasn’t going to be calling the shots for a while. So when he got called for the Catterall fight and told that it was going to be in Manchester’s new Co-op Live Arena, he didn’t fight; he simply asked when.
“At first, it was like, man, I got to do this again,” said Prograis. “But I understand the business side and I do understand that it would be a bigger fight over there than if it was over here [in the US]. Of course, I could probably fight in Houston or New Orleans, something like that. But I know that it’ll probably be a bigger fight gate-wise if it is over there in the UK. So, of course, we want the fans there. They’re the people we’re really trying to please at the end of the day. I understand that and that’s why it’s in the UK.”
The matchup with Catterall will mark Prograis’ second business trip to England and first since his 2019 title fight with Josh Taylor, one of the best of that year, but also one that handed the American a majority decision loss, the first of his career. And while it was a close and competitive bout through all 12 rounds, there are many who believe that if the IBF title fight was held in the United States and not the relative backyard of Scotland’s Taylor at the O2 Arena in London, the verdict might have gone Prograis’ way.
“Rougarou” is part of that contingent.
“I definitely thought I won the Taylor fight,” he said without hesitation. “I always thought that way. If you look at the stats, they were all on my side. Just even looking at Taylor’s face, everything was on my side. So maybe it was a little home cooking.”
Prograis’ thoughts on the decision are unwavering, but outside of that assertion, he largely stayed quiet. There was no call for an investigation of the judges, no shouts that he will never fight on foreign territory again. He took the loss, didn’t agree with it, but he moved on.
“There’s no point in complaining about things because what’s going to happen?” he asks. “What can you really change? For me, I get back on it and do my thing again. That’s all. I don’t know where I would’ve been if I would’ve won that fight because now look at Josh Taylor. He’s a shot fighter. He won, he was undisputed, that’s cool. But I feel like he’s a shot fighter now, and me, I became a two-time world champion and I’m going to become a three-time champion and probably a unified champion after that. So every time something like that happens to me, I just get back in training harder, go get better and don’t complain about it. It is what it is. You can’t overturn it.”
Needless to say, there were no sleepless nights waiting for a rematch, no pictures of Taylor on the mirror in the gym, and no praying to the boxing gods that Taylor would beat Catterall in their May rematch. The Lancashire man was next, and Prograis signed on the dotted line, clearly a non-believer in the boxing math that says if Catterall beat Taylor and Taylor beat Prograis, that means Catterall will beat Prograis.
“I think he’s a pretty solid fighter, but he’s not at that world level; I really don’t feel it,” Prograis said of Catterall. “He did the Josh Taylor thing. That’s cool. But if you look at every other fight, [Jorge] Linares and [Darragh] Foley and whoever else, it’s really not that impressive. If you look at my resume compared to his, there’s no comparison. And as long as that Regis shows up, it’ll be no problem.”
Even as an American fighting a Brit in England?
Prograis laughs, recalling his first days in the UK before the Taylor fight nearly five years ago.
“As soon as I got off the plane, we went to a mall and people knew who I was,” he said. “You’re taking about someone thousands of miles away, and they knew exactly who I was. Obviously, people will root for their guy, but they still like boxing. They still know what a good fighter is, and they like that. They appreciate it. So they appreciate me over there. And, of course, I won’t be a hometown fighter, but I think I’ll be pretty close.”
What Prograis doesn’t want to be pretty close is this fight. A dominant win puts the Haney fight in the rearview mirror, and with Catterall in the top five of all major sanctioning bodies, he can move into a title fight sooner rather than later. A loss would put a significant dent in his plans. But he doesn’t talk (or think) about anything but winning. I remind him of Marvin Hagler’s quote, “If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove.”
“That’s probably me, for sure,” he laughs. So as a boxing historian, avid reader, and the author of the recently released book, ‘Stories & Lessons from Regis Prograis’, he knows that there’s something to be said for going back to the country where he suffered his most bitter defeat and get a measure of payback, even if it’s not against the man who dealt him that loss.
“I’m ready to go over there,” said Prograis. “I keep envisioning it. This is something that I want to do. I want to go back to the UK, and I know it’s going to be a crazy atmosphere because the British fans – and I’m not just saying this – are some of the best in the world. I understand that it is a big fight over there and I’m excited about it. For me, it’s just getting back to having fun with boxing. I think for a while I just wasn’t having fun with it, but now, it’s like, man, just get back to enjoying yourself and having fun in the ring.”
Winning is fun, so fun that Regis Prograis can’t wait to get that feeling again. Know what’s even more fun? Being called a world champion. Beating Catterall won’t get Prograis that distinction for the third time in his career, but if he doesn’t get his hand raised on foreign soil in October, he may not hear those words again. And he refuses to let that happen.
“I’m definitely not overlooking him, but my goal is to be a three-time champion. That’s my goal, and no matter who’s in the division at 140, nobody’s going to get in my way of doing that. That’s why I really took the fight because [promoter] Matchroom [Boxing] offered me a bunch of fights. And I was like, no, why offer me a whole bunch of fights that are just for nothing? Why would I take certain fights if it’s not going to lead me towards a belt again? I feel like Jack Catterall is definitely leading me back towards that championship.”
