By Allan Fox: Regis Prograis will be facing WBA World light welterweight champion Kiryl Relikh (23-2, 19 KOs) at the end of this month on April 27 in the semifinal of the World Boxing Super Series 140 lb tournament at the Cajun Dome, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Expected by many people to be the winner of the WBSS tournament, Prograis has his training in high gear to make sure he has no slip ups against the hard hitting Relikh on the 27th of April.
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Prograis is showing a lot of hand speed and punching power in workout video of him working on a heavy bag. The hand speed and the short power bursts that Prograis showed during his heavy bag workout was impressive to say the least. He showed speed and short range punching power that this writer didn’t know existed. Prograis is a superb puncher, and possesses underrated power. Prograis’ speed is better than people think it is. The speed and power is like that of a lightning fast 147 pound fighters, and not a light welterweight. He’s one of those fighters that could fight at welterweight and thrive.
Unbeaten WBC Diamond light welterweight champion Prograis, 30, wants the WBA belt held by Relikh, and more importantly he wants to put himself into the final of the WBSS tournament to await the winner of the May 18 fight between IBF light welterweight champion Ivan Baranchyk vs. Josh Taylor.
Relikh, 29, is a big puncher from Belarus. He has very heavy hands. Relikh was beaten previously by Ricky Burns and Rances Barthelemy. Those losses came two and three years ago respectively. Relikh never fought Burns again, but he did avenge his loss to Barthelemy by beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in their rematch last year on March 10. Relikh has matured since those losses in winning his last two fights against Barthelemy and Eduard Troyanovsky. Never the less, Relikh is the underdog for his fight against Prograis, and it’s not going to turn out good for him if he doesn’t press the fight like he did against Barthelemy.
In Prograis’ quarterfinal fight in the World Boxing Super Series tournament, he defeated former WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan by a clear 12 round unanimous decision on October 27 at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. The judges scored it for Prograis by the scores 117-110, 118-109 and 119-108. One got the sense that Prograis could have done a lot more if he’d taken his offense out of first gear in that fight against Flanagan. When Prograis did start throwing punches with mean intentions in the eighth round, he knocked Flanagan down, and had him hurt. But as quickly as Prograis turned on his offense, he turned it back off and went back to fighting cautiously. He made the fight harder should have been by fighting too conservatively against an opponent in Flanagan that isn’t known for being a big puncher.
Prograis is thinking about going vegan. That’s a risky move on his part, because if he stops eating meat, it could wind up weakening him.
“Think I’m about to stop eating meat. That s— bad for you,” Prograis said on his social media site.