By Scott Gilfoid: Terry Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) is confident of victory on Saturday night in his quarterfinal fight against interim WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis (22-0, 19 KOs) in the World Boxing Super Series 140 lb tournament at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Flanagan has himself convinced that he’s going to beat Prograis. Whether Flanagan truly believes this or if he’s just talking to blow smoke up Prograis’ backside to make him think he’s confident when in fact he might be shivering inside at the thought of mixing it up with this talent.
This is the moment of truth for Flanagan. He lost his last fight to Maurice Hooker, and the chances are high that he’s going to lose again when he gets inside the ring with Prograis on Saturday. Prograis is someone that would likely destroy Hooker, so it tells you what Flanagan is up against. Gone are the days when Flanagan was being spoon fed dreadful opposition at the WBO lightweight champion. He’s now finding out how harsh it can be when he has to finally fend against the best. Heck, it didn’t even take the best to beat Flanagan last time out. Hooker was good enough to beat him, and he’s not even close to being the best in the light welterweight division.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Super Series)
Flanagan, 29, is the underdog against Prograis, and it’s going to take a special performance by him to get the ‘W’ on Saturday.
Flanagan lost his last fight to Maurice Hooker by a 12 round split decision last June in a losing effort to try and win the vacant World Boxing Organization light welterweight title. Flanagan fought well in portions of the fight, but he gassed at the end, letting the taller 5’11” hooker take over and get the win.
“I know it is going to be a tough fight, I am not stupid,” Flanagan said. “But I have had the right preparation, I am mentally and physically prepared and I feel fit and ready. I think I am going to do it Saturday night.”
Prograis is going to be going after Flanagan looking to take him out on Saturday night. Prograis wants the fight to be a war, and he’s looking forward to it. He’s likely studied Flanagan’s recent loss to Maurice Hooker backwards and forwards by now, and he knows what he needs to do for him to get the knockout in the fight. Flanagan likes to slug, so Prograis’ job is going to be that much easier because he won’t need to go looking for him.
Flanagan was a very good fighter when he fought at lightweight, but he never showed it by fighting the talents in the division. I mean, Flanagan looked good beating guys that looked like shouldn’t have been ranked in the top 15, but we never got to see what Flanagan looked like against the good fighters like Mikey Garcia, Jorge Linares, Robert Easter Jr. and Vasyl Lomachenko, because he didn’t fight any of them. During Flanagan’s run as the WBO 135 lb title, he beat the likes of Petr Petrov, Orlando Cruz, Mzonke Fana, Derry Mathews and Diego Magdaleno. Granted, Flanagan made a lot of defenses against guys that had absolutely no business fighting for a world title whatsoever. Fana is a 44-year-old fighter that had done nothing to get a title shot against Flanagan. That was clearly a title-milking fight for Flanagan in order to keep his WBO title longer. Mathews (38-12-2) was basically a journeyman and shouldn’t have been fighting for a world title. Why Flanagan picked Mathews to defend his title against is anyone’s guess.
Prograis is expected to win the World Boxing Super Series tournament in the view of a lot of fans. The only guy that has any chance of derailing Prograis’ bid to win the tournament is Josh Taylor, who he’s expected to meet in the final of the tournament. Taylor needs to get past Ryan Martin (22-0, 12 KOs) on November 3 in their quarterfinal fight at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Martin would normally have a good chance of winning the fight, but the fact that the match is staged in Glasgow means he’s going to be up against it royally on the night. Prograis will likely need to fight Taylor in Glasgow as well, but he brings his own judges in the form of his two fists. Prograis will be looking to KO Taylor to ensure that he does wind up getting the short end of the stick like Viktor Postol did in his recent loss to Taylor. Postol fought well enough to deserve a draw, but the judges gave the fight to Taylor by the lopsided scores 117-110, 118-110 and 119-108. Anyway, Prograis and Taylor won’t meet up unless they win their quarterfinal and semifinal fights in the WBSS tournament.
“I know Flanagan is tough. He is a former champion,” Prograis said. “But I will go out there and be me and have fun. I can do so many different things. First people said I am not a puncher and I don’t have power,” Prograis said.
What made Flanagan good when he fought at lightweight was his size advantage over his opposition. Flanagan, 5’9″, was absolutely huge for the lightweight division, and there weren’t too many guys that could deal with his height, reach and weight. To this day, I still don’t know how Flanagan was able to make the 135 lb weight limit for the fights, because he looked like a welterweight after he would rehydrate. He was huge for the division. But it was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to keep raining down forever to fight his smaller opposition. There was going to be a day where Flanagan could no longer cut weight, and he would then be forced to fight in his weight class that’s suited to his body. You can argue that Flanagan is still fighting in the wrong division, because the guy is a welterweight as far as I’m concerned.
The boxing fans in the U.S can see the Flanagan vs. Prograis fight on DAZN on Saturday night. There’s a free trial right now by DAZN for fans at DAZN.com.