Regis Prograis Shows He Can Serve Up Some Moves as Well as Power

Published

2 years ago

October 28, 2018

Former WBO lightweight champion “Turbo” Terry Flanagan had predicted he would give Regis “Rougarou” Prograis a “boxing lesson.” Prograis, the top-seeded entrant in the eight-fighter World Boxing Super Series for 140-pounders, had vowed that he would “definitely win by knockout.” No surprise there; the big hitting southpaw from New Orleans had won his last eight bouts and 16 of his most recent 17 ring appearances inside the distance.

Turns out both men’s crystal balls were just a bit fogged. No, Prograis (23-0, 19 KOs) did not deliver the emphatic stoppage he had promised his hometown fans in the University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena, but he did become the first fighter to floor Flanagan (33-2, 13 KOs) when he landed an overhand left that sent the Englishman to the canvas in the eighth round. Although Prograis could not close the show then or in the subsequent four rounds with another exclamation point, it was he, not Flanagan, who served up a masterful boxing performance to come away with a wide unanimous decision and advance to the WBSS semifinals, where he will face WBA champion Kiryl Relikh (23-2) of Belarus. Relikh won his quarterfinal on a 12-round unanimous decision over Russia’s Eduard Troyanovsky (27-2, 24 KOs) on Oct. 19 in Yokahama, Japan.

“It was super-special,” Prograis proclaimed after he had schooled fellow lefthander Flanagan in the DAZN-televised main event Saturday night by yawning margins of 119-108, 118-109 and 117-111 on the official scorecards. “Just like I always say, I want to bring big-time boxing back to New Orleans. And guess what? I did it. And look, we gonna do it again! The WBSS, we’re going to bring it back, right? We’re coming right back to New Orleans again!”

While it is Relikh who figures to be served up Prograis’ special recipe for pugilistic gumbo at some yet-to-be-determined date in the Big Easy, Prograis’ opponent in the finale, should both fighters advance that far, might have been on display in Saturday’s co-feature bout, which also was a WBSS quarterfinal. Strong but rough-around-the-edges Ivan “The Beast” Baranchyk (19-0, 12 KOs) was awarded a seventh-TKO victory over Sweden’s Anthony “Can You Dig It” Yigit (21-1-1, 7 KOs) at the conclusion of the seventh round when referee Phil Edwards, acting on the advice of the ring physician, called a halt to the proceedings because of the severity of the hematoma that had turned Yigit’s completely closed left eye into an ugly, purple mass of swollen flesh. Baranchyk, who claimed the vacant IBF junior welterweight championship, advances to the other semifinal, where he will face the winner of the Nov. 3 matchup of Josh Taylor (13-0, 11 KOs) and Cleveland’s Ryan Martin (22-0, 12 KOs) in Taylor’s hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. Taylor is favored to get past Martin, and then probably against Baranchyk, but likely would not be, were he to square off against Prograis.

Tournaments such as the WBSS are increasingly gaining favor as a means of thinning the herd of contenders in a particular weight class, bringing some semblance of order to a sport where chaos is normally the rule rather than the exception. The concept was launched with great success in the cruiserweight division in 2017, when Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk fully unified the titles by defeating three quality opponents, including Russia’s Murat Gassiev in the July 21, 2018, finale, in the process announcing himself as a factor in any pound-for-pound conversations. The companion super middleweight tournament, which also began in 2017, ended with England’s Callum Smith surviving a three-bout gauntlet to take top honors.

The WBSS’ super lightweight – or junior welterweight, if you prefer – tourney can’t be as conclusive as was the case with the cruiserweights, because WBC champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (23-0, 16 KOs) is not involved. Because Ramirez holds the “real” WBC 140-pound title, Prograis was reduced to defending his secondary WBC Diamond, or interim, belt against Flanagan. But like Usyk, Prograis sees the WBSS as an express lane to possible superstardom and a place at the pound-for-pound table, and he did no disservice to his quest by being required to go beyond eight rounds as a pro for the first time in his career.

Flanagan, who had defended his WBO lightweight championship five times before stepping up to super lightweight and dropping a split decision to Maurice Hooker in Flanagan’s hometown of Manchester, is a savvy veteran who incorrectly had pegged Prograis as a mostly one-dimensional slugger who would get frustrated were he to find himself in the kind of tactical bout the New Orleanian usually tries to avoid. But Prograis showed himself to be more polished than he is generally given credit for.

“He’s a beast. He likes to mix it up,” Prograis’ trainer, Bobby Benton, had said of his charge’s preference for getting down ’n’ dirty. But all boxing matches do not present the same challenges, and Prograis seemed pleased to reveal another side of himself.

Was Prograis surprised, and maybe a little disappointed, when he couldn’t get Flanagan out of there after he floored and hurt him in the eighth round?

“I wasn’t really surprised,” he said in his distinctive N’Awlins patois. “(But) I really wasn’t worried about it. When you drop somebody and they’re hurt, they are even more dangerous. I knew he was still gonna be dangerous. He had a little power.

“I went out there and I wanted to box. I boxed my ass off. Most people say I can’t box, I can’t do this, I can’t do that, I only got power. Now I showed you I can go 12 rounds with a world-class fighter. I had fun. I’m in there havin’ fun. It was all fun to me.”

The good times should continue for Prograis – who has the kind of back story, as a literal orphan of the storm, having hurriedly relocated from New Orleans to Houston with his family as a 16-year-old to escape 2005’s Hurricane Katrina – should he defeat Relikh and whomever makes it to the WBSS title bout. His confidence is rising faster than had the floodwaters of Katrina, which submerged large swaths of New Orleans, which he always will call home even though he continues to reside in Houston.

“I’m fast. I’m strong. I hit real hard. I don’t see nobody beating me,” he said. “It don’t matter who the hell I fight. I’m gonna win the whole thing. The Muhammad Ali Trophy (which goes to the WBSS winner) mine.”

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HITS and MISSES: Post-Thanksgiving Weekend Edition

Published

9 hours ago

November 30, 2020

Kelsey McCarson

HITS-and-MISSES-Post-Thanksgiving-Weekend-Edition

It was another massive weekend in boxing. There were big fights on pay-per-view that maybe shouldn’t have been so big, and fights surrounded by lesser fanfare that will probably be looked back at as the more meaningful action by future historians.

Here are the biggest HITS and MISSES from another week on the boxing beat.

HIT: Mike Tyson, Roy Jones and the Unifying Power of Boxing

Whatever you think about the boxing exhibition bout between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, Jr. on Saturday night, the most important aspect of the whole night (to this writer at least) was seeing how easily a big fight in boxing could still unify our culture.

No, it wasn’t a legitimate prizefight, but people still wanted to see the 54-year-old Tyson go a few rounds with the 51-year-old Jones, and that’s exactly what they got. It was a ride built mostly around the power of nostalgia, and it featured all sorts of present-day celebrities, too.

By the end of things, it seemed the general reaction to the event on social media was positive.

Tyson vs. Jones showed how big a reach boxing still has. Tyson retired over 15 years ago, but people from all over the planet were still willing to pay $50 to watch him climb inside the ropes for a sparring session.

Seeing that left me with two exciting questions.

What awesome power will boxing’s next superstar have?

More importantly, where is he (or she) anyway?

MISS: Ring Announcer’s Steve Harvey Moment

In 2015, comedian Steve Harvey accidentally announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe pageant. As humiliating as that event was for Harvey, just imagine how the two women felt after having their hearts filled and slashed by his error.

That same thing sort of happened on Friday night when Danny Jacobs beat Gabriel Rosado via split decision in a 168-pound stay-busy fight streamed by DAZN.

Ring announcer Jeremiah Gallegos accidentally said the winner hailed from Philadelphia (where Rosado is from) before quickly changing it back to Brooklyn (where Jacobs is from).

So momentarily, the hard-luck Rosado, who never has been the beneficiary of a close decision in any important fight, thought he had just pulled off the upset of the year.

Instead, Jacobs was corrected as the winner and that had to be an awful experience for both fighters, one that was completely avoidable.

HIT: Joe Joyce: An Actual Juggernaut?

Heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce is a popular fighter on the other side of the ocean because of his long and successful campaign as an amateur boxing star which culminated with Joyce winning the silver medal for Great Britain in the super heavyweight division at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Still, as a professional prospect, there are lots of things not to like about Joyce. First, Joyce didn’t start boxing until he was 22. Late bloomers come around now and then, but they’re still a rarity in the sport. Second, Joyce is already 35, which means he’s already just outside the confines of his theoretical physical prime, something that ends around 33 years old and only gets worse. Finally, Joyce is just plain slow as molasses.

Regardless, Joyce stopped fellow Brit Daniel Dubois on Saturday in London.

Unlike Joyce, Dubois, 23, possesses plenty of attributes one looks for in a future world champion. But none of those things helped Dubois win the fight.

All this to say Joyce just keeps winning fights. Sure, he might appear to be a boulder tumbling slowly down a hill when he fights, but that rock is starting to gain some real momentum.

HIT: 54-1

Thailand’s Wanheng Menayothin finally lost a fight over the weekend, but it should be noted that at least the fighter finally knows his limits.

Menayothin (aka Chayaphon Moonsri) entered his fight against Petchmanee CP Freshmart (aka Panya Pradabsri) with a sterling record of 54-0. He left the contest 54-1 after judges rendered their verdict for the challenger.

Much was made of Menayothin’s glossy win streak last year when he surpassed retired boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 mark. But a combat sports culture obsessed with suffering no blemishes on a record is only a relatively new phenomenon. Moreover, the very nature of that path through the sport never reveals the true limits of a fighter.

All this to say that Menayothin now gets a better sense of his limits, and the boxing world as a whole gets to know that same thing about him, too. That’s wildly better than the alternative.

MISS: Nate Robinson Challenge

If you missed the Tyson vs. Jones pay-per-view event on Triller over the weekend, you didn’t see social media star Jake Paul’s viral knockout of ex-NBA star Nate Robinson.

It was clear from the start of the fight that Paul and Robinson weren’t evenly matched. That kind of thing happens all the time in boxing, of course, but here was a case of a person (Robinson) who maybe had been so mismatched against Paul that it was too dangerous to have happened at all.

Regardless, Robinson did have the courage to train for the fight and step inside the ropes on fight night.

After he was knocked out, something called the “Nate Robinson Challenge” started trending on Twitter, and it was basically people from all over the world trolling the 3-time NBA dunking champ for getting knocked out in the fight.

Look, Robinson made his own bed by calling for the fight in the first place. But the Internet trolls that rag people for stepping outside their comfort zones probably would never dare to attempt that accomplishment themselves.

Robinson tried and failed. That’s the real challenge.

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Tyson and Jones Box to an Unofficial Draw in a Predictable Stinker

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2020

Arne K. Lang

Tyson-and-Jones-Box-to-an-Unofficial-draw-in-a-Predictable-Stinker

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, an American institution, went belly-up in 2017, but a different kind of circus played to an empty house at the Staples Center in Los Angeles tonight. The main attraction wasn’t Jumbo the elephant but Iron Mike Tyson in his first ring appearance in 15 years. In the opposite corner was Roy Jones Jr, who at age 51 was the younger man by three years.

Tyson vs. Jones was the main piece of a 4-hour boxing and music festival live-streamed in the U.S. on the TysononTriller.com app at a list price of $49.95. This was the first live event on “Triller” which allows people to create their own music videos and was designed as a rival to China-owned TikTok, one of the biggest recent success stories in the internet world.

The California State Athletic Commission, which sanctioned the match, insisted that Tyson vs. Jones would be an exhibition. They would fight 8 two-minute rounds with 12-ounce gloves and if there were a knockdown, the referee would not give a count and the bout would or would not continue at his discretion. The rounds would not be scored and no winner would be named.

Of course, the promoter chafed at these restraints and did his best to create the impression that this was a legitimate prizefight. Retired boxers Vinny Pazienza, Chad Dawson, and Christy Martin were lassoed to serve as judges, scoring the fight from a remote location, and the WBC commissioned an honorary belt to present to the winner.

The advance hype was enormous. A clickbait-obsessed media lapped it up including photoshop-enhanced images of Mike Tyson’s physique.

In the second round, Tyson landed a double left hook and that was the only indelible moment in the match. By the third round, both looked and sounded tired and by the sixth round Jones was thoroughly gassed out and took to clinching to make it to the final bell.

For the record, the scores were 79-73 for Tyson (Martin), 80-76 for Jones (Pazienza), and 76-76 (Dawson). On the internet, the clear consensus was that Tyson had the best of it.

Mike Tyson, 50-6, 2 NC (44 KOs) last fought in June of 2005 when he was stopped by third-rater Kevin McBride. Roy Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) was active as recently as 2018 and won his last four, but against hand-picked opponents including a boxer making his pro debut. His last fight of significance came in 2011 when he was brutally KOed by Dennis Lebedev in Moscow.

Jones, who weighed 210 ½ tonight, weighed 157 when he made his pro debut in 1989. In his prime, he was pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world, but that was back in the previous century.

Both fighters were reportedly guaranteed $1 million with Tyson’s take potentially reaching $10 million if certain financial targets were met.

Other Bouts

YouTube sensation Jake Paul, who we reluctantly concede has more than a modicum of talent in the fisticuffing department, knocked out Nate Robinson in the second round and it was a clean knockout with Robinson knocked out cold. The 36-year-old Robinson, the former NBA point guard who was a three-time slam dunk champion during his 11-year NBA career, is a well-rounded athlete, good enough to start as a cornerback in football during his freshman year at the University of Washington, but his athleticism didn’t translate to the squared circle as he looked like a common bar brawler.

Former two-division belt-holder Badou Jack (22-3-4), who said he appeared on the card as a favor to his friend Mike Tyson, was a clear-cut winner over hard-trying but out-classed Blake McKernan in an 8-round cruiserweight match.

At age 37, Jack’s career is winding down. He tipped the scales at 188 ¾, 14 pounds more than in his previous engagement vs. Jean Pascal. McKernan, a natural cruiserweight from Sacramento, was undefeated coming in (13-0), but was in over his head against Jack, a former Olympian and veteran of seven world title fights.

In a good action fight, Worcester, Massachusetts lightweight Jamaine Ortiz, a carpenter by trade, improved to 14-0 (8) with a seventh-round stoppage of Sulaiman Segawa (13-3-1), a Maryland-based Ugandan.

In the first bout on the program, Fort Worth featherweight Edward Vazquez improved to 9-0 (1) with an 8-round split decision over Jamaine Ortiz stablemate Irvin Gonzalez (14-3).

Heavyweight Juiseppe “Joe” Cusumano improved to 19-3 (17) with a sixth-round stoppage of late sub Gregory Corbin (15-4). It was the fourth straight loss for the 40-year-old Corbin who came in at a beefy 291 ¾ pounds.

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Fast Results from London: Joe Joyce Stops Daniel Dubois in the 10th

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2020

Arne K. Lang

Fast-Results-from-London-Joe-Joyce-Stops-Daniel-Dubois-in-the-10th

The historic Church House which sits in the shadow of Westminster Abbey was the site of tonight’s clash in London between unbeaten heavyweights Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce. The bout lacked the gloss of a world title fight, but didn’t need it. The oft-postponed match, originally slated for the 02 Arena in London on April 11 with promoter Frank Warren anticipating a sellout, was fairly hyped as the most anticipated fight since Fury-Wilder II which was the last big fight before the coronavirus clampdown.

Dubois, 15-0 with 14 KOs heading in, was a consensus 7/2 favorite in man-to-man betting, He was younger, faster and punched harder, but ultimately it would be his “O” that had to go. Joe Joyce, an inch taller at six-foot-six and 15 pounds heavier at 259, emerged victorious with a 10^th-round stoppage in what was a good back-and-forth fight with a divided opinion as to who had the edge through the completed rounds.

Joyce really didn’t do much but throw a jab, but he landed that jab consistently and it was a hard, thudding jab that caused Dubois’s left eye to start swelling during the mid-rounds of the fight. The damaged eye eventually shut and when Joyce reached it with another hard jab in the 10^th, Dubois surrendered by taking a knee. The presumption was that he had suffered a broken orbital bone.

The 35-year-old Joyce, nicknamed Juggernaut, is of Scotch-Irish and Nigerian descent. He lost by split decision to Tony Yoka in the semifinals of the 2016 Olympics and had to settle for a silver medal. Prior to turning pro, he was 12-1 in the semi-pro World Series of Boxing with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Oleksandr Usyk. With today’s career-defining win, he upped his pro ledger to 12-0 (11).

Other Bouts

Top-rated WBC super lightweight contender Jack Catterall (26-0) won a predictably one-sided 10-round triumph over 33-year-old Tunisian Abderrazak Houya (14-3). Catterall scored two knockdowns en route to winning by a 99-90 score. This was a stay-busy fight for the Lancashire man who was the mandatory challenger for title-holder Jose Carlos Ramirez and accepted step-aside money with the promise that he would meet the winner of the unification fight between Ramirez and Josh Taylor which is expected to come off in February.

The lead-in fight was a 10-round contest in the super welterweight division between 21-year-old Hamzah Sheeraz and 33-year-old Guido Nicolas Pitto. The fight was monotonous until Sheeraz (12-0, 8 KOs) kicked it into a higher career in the final stanza and brought about the stoppage. Pitto, from Spain by way of Argentina, declined to 26-8-2. The official time was 1:11 of round 10.

In an 8-round cruiserweight bout, Jack Massey improved to 17-1 (8) with a 79-74 referee’s decision over Mohammad Ali Farid (16-2-1). Massey was making his first start since losing a close 12-round decision to Richard Raikporhe in December of 2019 for the vacant BBBofC title. The well-traveled, one-dimensional Farid had scored 16 knockouts in his previous 18 fights while answering the bell for only 33 rounds.

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