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Regis Prograis Brings World Championship Boxing back to New Orleans

Fifty-nine years have elapsed since a native son of New Orleans returned to the city of his birth in the role of a defending world champion. Tomorrow night at the Smoothie Center, home to the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, Regis Prograis hopes to have his hand raised, mirroring that of Willie Pastrano who turned away Argentina’s Gregorio Peralta on April 10, 1964, at the old New Orleans Municipal Auditorium in the first defense of his world light heavyweight title.
Prograis will be defending his WBC 140-pound diadem and, if the oddsmakers are prescient, he will almost certainly send the home folks home happy. The 34-year-old southpaw is in the vicinity of 15/1 favorite over Puerto Rico’s Danielito Zorrilla who got this assignment when Australia’s Liam Paro was forced to withdraw after both of his Achilles tendons tightened-up while he was training in Las Vegas.
As is well-known, Prograis was part of the great diaspora from New Orleans wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The devastating 2005 storm destroyed his family’s home and he wound up in Houston where he found his way to Bobby Benton’s boxing gym. Reputedly 87-8 as amateur, he turned pro in Houston in 2012 after failing to make the U.S. Olympic team.
Prograis’s emotional tie to New Orleans grew stronger in his new environment. The tattoos he had inked on his chest pay homage to NOLA. His colorful nickname Rougarou, a mythical creature in Cajun swamp folklore, akin to a werewolf, pays tribute to his Louisiana heritage. Coming up the ladder, it was always his dream to headline a major fight card in the city where he spent the first 16 years of his life.
He got his wish in 2018 when he headlined two shows at the Lakefront Arena on the campus of the University of New Orleans where he brutalized Argentina’s Juan Jose Velasco (TKO 8) and won a lopsided 12-round decision over the slick Mancunian, Terry Flanagan. However, Prograis hadn’t yet won a world title. That came in his next fight when he unseated WBA 140-pound belt-holder Kiryl Relikh, stopping the Belarusian in the sixth round in Lafayette, Louisiana, a city roughly equidistant between New Orleans and Houston.
Prograis lost the belt in a bruising tiff with Josh Taylor in London, the 2019 TSS Fight of the Year. That remains the only blemish on his ledger. He has won four inside the distance since that setback, most recently an 11th-round stoppage of Jose Zepeda who was 35-2 heading in and had never been stopped. Rougarou, now 28-1 (24 KOs) never looked better, winning every round from the third round on against a tough opponent before the match was halted.
His bout with Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KOs) is his first for promoter Eddie Hearn. It will be streamed live to more than 200 countries around the world on DAZN with the ring walks expected to go about 11:25 pm EST.
Down the road, Prograis has expressed an interest in unifying the titles. That would seem to rule out a bout with Teofimo Lopez who Prograis has called out in the past. In a text to WBO president Paco Valcarcel, Teofimo gave notice that he was relinquishing the WBO strap that he won last weekend when he upset Josh Taylor. The other 140-pound title-holders are Subriel Matias (IBF) and Rolly Romero (WBA). Lurking in the weeds is England’s Jack Catterall who inked a multi-fight pact with Eddie Hearn in April.
The Smoothie Center shares a parking lot with the adjacent Superdome. With a listed capacity of 17,805, it is twice as large as Lakefront Arena. It will be interesting to see if Prograis can fill up the joint. Neither of his fights at Lakefront were sellouts. Willie Pastrano’s match with Gregorio Peralta – a Friday Night affair on ABC with the New Orleans area blacked-out – was a bust at the gate, attracting only 4,176.
Considered little more than a journeyman before hooking up with Angelo Dundee, Pastrano prepared for his homecoming fight sparring with his Miami Beach stablemate Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay. He was ahead on two of the scorecards when the bout was halted after five frames because of a bad gash over Peralta’s left eye. The Argentine had won 24 straight heading in including a 10-round decision over Pastrano in a previous engagement.
In his next start in what proved to be his next-to-last pro fight, Pastrano turned in a career-best performance with an 11th-round stoppage of Terry Downes in Manchester, England. That earned the New Orleans native the Fighter of the Year Award from the Boxing Writers Association of America.
In some ways, Regis Prograis has already surpassed what Willie Pastrano accomplished. In other ways, he has a tough act to follow.
Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom
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Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach

Skavynskyi and Bustillos Win on a MarvNation Card in Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Ca.-A cool autumn night saw welterweights and minimumweights share main events for a MarvNation fight card on Saturday.
Ukraine’s Eduard Skavynskyi (15-0, 7 KOs) experienced a tangled mess against the awkward Alejandro Frias (14-10-2) but won by decision after eight rounds in a welterweight contest at the indoor furnace called the Thunder Studios.
It was hot in there for the more than 600 people inside.
Skavynskyi probably never fought someone like Mexico’s Frias whose style was the opposite of the Ukrainian’s fundamentally sound one-two style. But round after round the rough edges became more familiar.
Neither fighter was ever damaged but all three judges saw Skavynskyi the winner by unanimous decision 79-73 on all three cards. The Ukrainian fighter trains in Ventura.
Bustillo Wins Rematch
In the female main event Las Vegas’ Yadira Bustillos (8-1) stepped into a rematch with Karen Lindenmuth (5-2) and immediately proved the lessons learned from their first encounter.
Bustillos connected solidly with an overhand right and staggered Lindenmuth but never came close to putting the pressure fighter down. Still, Bustillos kept turning the hard rushing Lindenmuth and snapping her head with overhand rights and check left hooks.
Lindenmuth usually overwhelms most opponents with a smothering attack that causes panic. But not against Bustillos who seemed quite comfortable all eight rounds in slipping blows and countering back.
After eight rounds all three judges scored the contest for Bustillos 78-74 and 80-72 twice. Body shots were especially effective for the Las Vegas fighter in the fifth round. Bustillos competes in the same division as IBF/WBO title-holder Yokasta Valle.
Other Bouts
In a middleweight clash, undefeated Victorville’s Andrew Buchanan (3-0-1) used effective combination punching to defeat Mexico’s Fredy Vargas (2-1-1) after six rounds. Two judges scored it 59-55 and a third 60-54 for Buchanan. No knockdowns were scored.
A super lightweight match saw Sergio Aldana win his pro debut by decision after four rounds versus Gerardo Fuentes (2-9-1).
Photos credit: Al Applerose
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Tedious Fights and a Controversial Draw Smudge the Matchroom Boxing Card in Orlando

Matchroom Boxing was at the sprawling Royale Caribe Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida tonight with a card that aired on DAZN. The main event was a ho-hum affair between super lightweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepeda.
SoCal’s Zepeda has been in some wars in the past, notably his savage tussle with Ivan Baranchyk, but tonight he brought little to the table and was outclassed by the lanky Hitchins who won all 12 rounds on two of the cards and 11 rounds on the other. There were no knockdowns, but Zepeda suffered a cut on his forehead in round seven that was deemed to be the product of an accidental head butt and another clash in round ten forced a respite in the action although Hitchins suffered no apparent damage.
It was the sort of fight where each round was pretty much a carbon of the round preceding it. Brooklyn’s Hitchins, who improved to 17-0 (7), was content to pepper Zepeda with his jab, and the 34-year-old SoCal southpaw, who brought a 37-3 record, was never able to penetrate his defense and land anything meaningful.
Hitchins signed with Floyd Mayweather Jr’s promotional outfit coming out of the amateur ranks and his style is reminiscent in ways of his former mentor. Like Mayweather, he loses very few rounds. In his precious engagement, he pitched a shutout over previously undefeated John Bauza.
Co-Feature
In the co-feature, Conor Benn returned to the ring after an absence of 17 months and won a unanimous decision over Mexico’s Rodolfo Orozco. It wasn’t a bad showing by Benn who showed decent boxing skills, but more was expected of him after his name had been bandied about so often in the media. Two of the judges had it 99-91 and the other 96-94.
Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) was a late addition to the card although one suspects that promoter Eddie Hearn purposely kept him under wraps until the week of the fight so as not to deflect the spotlight from the other matches on his show. Benn lost a lucrative date with Chris Eubank Jr when he was suspended by the BBBofC when evidence of a banned substance was found in his system and it’s understood that Hearn has designs on re-igniting the match-up with an eye on a date in December. For tonight’s fight, Benn carried a career-high 153 ½ pounds. Mexico’s Orozco, who was making his first appearance in a U.S. ring, declined to 32-4-3.
Other Bouts of Note
The welterweight title fight between WBA/WBC title-holder Jessica McCaskill (15-3-1) and WBO title-holder Sandy Ryan (6-1-1) ended in a draw and the ladies’ retain their respective titles. Ryan worked the body effectively and the general feeling was that she got a raw deal, a sentiment shared by the crowd which booed the decision. There was a switch of favorites in the betting with the late money seemingly all on the Englishwoman who at age 30 was the younger boxer by nine years.
The judges had it 96-94 Ryan, 96-95, and a vilified 97-93 for Chicago’s McCaskill.
In the opener of the main DAZN stream, Houston middleweight Austin “Ammo” Williams, 27, improved to 15-0 (10) with a 10-round unanimous decision over 39-year-old Toronto veteran Steve Rolls (22-3). All three judges had it 97-93. Rolls has been stopped only once, that by Gennady Golovkin.
Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing
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Zhilei Zhang KOs Joe Joyce; Calls Out Tyson Fury

Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause after being stopped in the sixth frame by Zhilei Zhang in their first meeting. In hindsight, he may wish that he hadn’t. Tonight at London’s Wembley Stadium, Zhang stopped him again and far more conclusively than in their first encounter.
In the first meeting, Zhang, a southpaw, found a steady home for his stiff left jab. Targeting Joyce’s right eye, he eventually damaged the optic to where the ring doctor wouldn’t let Joyce continue. At the end, the fight was close on the cards and Joyce was confident that he would have pulled away if not for the issue with his eye.
In the rematch tonight, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs) closed the curtain with his right hand. A thunderous right hook on the heels of a straight left pitched Joyce to the canvas where he landed face first. He appeared to beat the count by a whisker, but was seriously dazed and referee Steve Gray properly waived it off. The official time was 3:07 of round three.
Zhang, who lived up to his nickname, “Big Bang,” was credited with landing 29 power punches compared with only six for Joyce (15-2) who came in 25 pounds heavier than in their first meeting while still looking properly conditioned. One would be inclined to say that age finally caught with the “Juggernaut” who turned 38 since their last encounter, but Zhang, 40, is actually the older man. In his post-fight interview in the ring, the New Jersey resident, a two-time Olympian for China, when asked who he wanted to fight next, turned to the audience and said, “Do you want to see me shut Tyson Fury up?”
He meant it as a rhetorical question.
Semi-Windup
Light heavyweight Anthony Yarde was matched soft against late sub Jorge Silva, a 40-year-old Portuguese journeyman, and barely broke a sweat while scoring a second-round stoppage. Yarde backed Silva against a corner post and put him on the deck with a short right hand. Silva’s body language indicated that he had no interest in continuing and the referee accommodated him. The official time was 2:07 of round two.
A 30-year-old Londoner, Yarde (24-3, 23 KOs) was making his first start since being stopped in eight rounds by Artur Beterbiev in a bout that Yarde was winning on two of the scorecards. Silva, a late replacement for 19-3-1 Ricky Summers, falls to 22-9.
Also
Former leading super middleweight contender Zach Parker (23-1, 17 KOs) returned to the ring in a “shake-off-the-rust” fight against 40-year-old Frenchman Khalid Graidia and performed as expected. Graidia’s corner pulled him out after seven one-sided rounds.
In his previous fight, Parker was matched against John Ryder who he was favored to beat. The carrot for the winner was a lucrative date with Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately for Parker, he suffered a broken hand and was unable to continue after four frames. Tonight, he carried 174 pounds, a hint that he plans to compete as a light heavyweight going forward. Indeed, he has expressed an interest in fighting Anthony Yarde. Graidia declined to 10-13-4.
The Zhang-Joyce and Yarde-Silva fights were live-streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.
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