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 11^th-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 11^th-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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