By Scott Gilfoid: Regis ‘Rougarou’ Prograis (22-0, 19 KOs) will be taking the first step on the path to winning the World Boxing Super Series 140 lb tournament this Saturday night when he faces Terry Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In addition to Prograis and Flanagan battling for Regis’ interim WBC light welterweight title, they’ll be fighting for the WBC Diamond 140 lb title.
(Photo credit: ewilsonphotos/World Boxing Super Series)
Aside from their age, this is a fight matching two distinctly different type of fighters. Flanagan is a light puncher at 140, who prefers to try and box his opponents now that he’s fighting at 140 against guys his own size. When the 5’9″ Flanagan was fighting at 135, he would use his size to get the better of his smaller opponents. Considered to be weight bully by a lot of boxing fans, Flanagan could no longer make weight for the lightweight division, and he was forced to move up to 140. However, even at 140, Flanagan looks drained in making the weight, which isn’t surprising because he appears to be a true welterweight after rehydrates. In Flanagan’s last fight against Maurice Hooker, he ran out of gas in the second half of the match. This could be a product of the great pains that Flanagan must go through to make weight. He’s simply competing in the wrong division, and he’s too old at 29 to dehydrate himself to be at full strength for the weight class. However, even if Flanagan were strong at 140, he’d still be over his head given the strength, talent and speed of Prograis.
“I am excited, I am super pumped up,” said Prograis. “This is huge, the World Boxing Super Series and eventually fighting for the Muhammad Ali Trophy. I can’t wait for Saturday.”
Prograis, 29, is the favorite to beat Flanagan on Saturday in their quarterfinal fight in the World Boxing Super Series tournament.
There’s really not much Flanagan can do to win this fight other than swing for the fences and hope he can KO Prograis with a lucky punch. The fight is taking place in Prograis’ backyard in New Orleans, so if it goes to the scorecards, Flanagan figures to be on the losing end. Personally, I don’t think this fight is going to go more than six rounds before Prograis knocks Flanagan into the stratosphere with one of his hard power shots. Prograis is clearly the best fighter in the 140 lb weight class, and he’s on his way to winning the World Boxing Super Series tournament. The main competition for Prograis in the WBSS tournament is Josh Taylor, but he’s not going to be able to prevent Regis from winning the tournament in my view.
“I am the number 1 seed so of course there is pressure on me, but I feel a lot better than last time I fought in New Orleans, where it felt like work and the pressure weighed on me a bit,” said Prograis.
Prograis is talking about his 8th round knockout win over Juan Jose Velasco last July in New Orleans. Prograis made the mistake of throwing almost all body shots instead of mixing his punches, and this enabled Velasco to last a lot longer than he otherwise would have. Prograis needed to make adjustments by the 3rd round for him to sore a fast KO, but he failed to do so. That made the fight a lot tougher than it otherwise would have been.
Flanagan hasn’t put in an impressive performance since his 8th round knockout of Orlando Cruz in November 2016.
Prograis vs. Flanagan will be streamed on DAZN in the United States this Saturday night.