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

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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