Prograis says Josh Taylor will DESTROY Jose Ramirez

By Boxing News - 07/29/2019 - Comments

Image: Prograis says Josh Taylor will DESTROY Jose Ramirez

By Charles Brun: Regis Prograis says Josh Taylor will destroy WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez if those two face each other Prograis rates the unbeaten IBC 140 pound champion Taylor (15-0, 12 KOs) as a better fighter than Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs), who stopped WBO champion Maurice Hooker (26-1-3, 17 KOs) in the sixth round last Saturday night on DAZN in Arlington, Texas.

WBA light welterweight champion Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs) will soon be meeting up with Taylor in the final of the World Boxing Super Series 140 pound tournament next October. The two are waiting for the organizers of the tournament to give an official date and venue for the fight. Prograis, 30, destroyed WBA champion Kiryl Relikh (23-3, 19 KOs) by a sixth round stoppage on April 27 in the semifinal of the WBSS tournament. For his part, Taylor defeated IBF champion Ivan Baranchyk by a 12 round unanimous decision in his semifinal fight on May 18 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Josh Taylor will knockout Jose Ramirez says Prograis

“Josh Taylor would knock Ramirez the f–k out,” said Regis Prograis to IFL TV.  “I guarantee. Josh Taylor would smoke him. It was a great fight. It was an entertaining fight,” said Prograis about the Ramirez vs. Hooker match. “They beat the s–t out of each other just like I said. Who beat the s–t out of me? Whoever beat the s–t out of me? I’ve had 24 fights with 20 knockouts, and I haven’t had a hard fight yet. Who even got close? Nobody even got close.  I got Josh coming up.

Taylor, 28, couldn’t knockout Baranchyk, and he had him down twice in round six. When Taylor would try and put a lot of heat on Baranchyk, he was getting hit with some huge shits. That made Taylor back off, and fight smart. There’s a good possibility that Taylor will be content to box Ramirez, and stay out of range of his powerful hooks. At this point, the only way that Taylor faces Ramirez is if he beats Prograis in the final.

If Prograis defeats Taylor, then he’s not going to get a chance to fight Ramirez. That fight will be taken by Prograis. If both Ramirez and Taylor stay at 140, they can eventually fight each other, but it’s questionable whether the fight would be for a world title. Prograis is on his way to unifying the 140 pound division. Once he unifies the division, it would shutout Taylor and Ramirez. There’s always the World Boxing Council’s trinket titles that Ramirez and Taylor could fight for at that point, but they might not be able to do much more than that until Prograis gets old or moves up in weight.

Prograis says he’s going to beat Taylor, then come back for Ramirez

“I’m not even worried about Ramirez. He’s got his belt. I’m happy for him. I’m going to deal with the Josh Taylor fight, and then I’m going to come back and f–k over Ramirez,” said Prograis. “The only person that went 12 rounds with me is Terry Flanagan. Look what I did to him. I smoked him bad. I f—-d up my hand. No excuses, but I did f–k up my hand. That’s why I couldn’t land my left hand. One day I will prove I’m pound-for-pound. I’ve never been tested. I’ve never been close to being tested yet. Yeah, Josh Taylor will probably be my biggest test yet. But so far, I’m undefeated fighting former world champions, and world champions. I beat them. I be smoking all of them,” said Prograis.

Prograis might not find it so easy to get a fight against Ramirez if he looks too good in beating Taylor. Ramirez’s promoters at Top Rank have a good thing going with him holding down the WBA and WBO 140 pound titles now, and they could choose to let the fight marinate more. Prograis wanted to fight Ramirez in 2018, but Top Rank wanted the fight to marinate. The fight is still marinating, and it’s easy to predict Top Rank choosing to kick the fight into the future. It wouldn’t be surprising if Ramirez is eventually beaten by someone else before Top Rank matches him against Prograis. For Prograis to win this fight, he’s going to need to look better than he did in his quarterfinal contest against Terry Flanagan. Prograis says he had an injured left hand for that fight, but he needs to be healthy against Taylor if he wants to win.

Hooker made mistake of fighting Ramirez off the ropes says Prograis

“It was a good fight,” said Prograis about the Ramirez-Hooker contest. “I felt they were going to beat the s–t out of each other, and that’s exactly what they did. Maurice Hooker’s whole thing is he stayed on the ropes. You can’t stay on the ropes against Ramirez. I know that, and I know he’s got power, and he throws the Mexican double left hook. I respect him, but at the same time I feel like I’m going to smoke him. I’ve been blowing people out. I seen the same thing with Ramirez that I’ve been seeing.

Hooker, 29, fought a crazy fight in backing up against the ropes, and covering up against Ramirez last Saturday. He was doing well when he was in the center of the ring against Ramirez, but then he would get backed up to the ropes where he would take punishment. It looked like Hooker’s slender legs were too weak to keep Ramirez from bulling him to the ropes. Ramirez had too size on the slender Hooker, and he was able to use his strength to walk him into the ropes.

Prograis: Jose Ramirez isn’t going to hit me

“He’s a Mexican fighter, and he’s a very, very tough Mexican fighter,” said Prograis. “He’s a flat-footed Mexican fighter. At the same time, he’s got a lot of stamina, and he has a chin. So he’s going to get hit, but he’s going to go through it. He’s been hit by some big punchers, but I’m a big puncher and I’m accurate. At the same time, I’m a big 140, and at the same time, he’s not going to hit me. He’s not going to hit me with that stuff.,” said Prograis.

Prograis will need to use a lot of movement to keep from getting nailed by Ramirez, and that’s not going to be easy to do. The 5’10” Ramirez just keeps coming forward, and he’s got excellent and a long reach. Prograis is going to need to go to war with Ramirez for him to keep him off, because he’s not going to be kept held off with a jab or pot shots.

Prograis vs. Taylor possible for October

“We ain’t got no date. We’re still waiting,” said Prograis about his WBSS final fight against Taylor. “It’s like in October. That’s what I’m hearing too. After I beat Josh Taylor’s a–, I’m going to give him some of these,” said Prograis in pointing to his sneakers.

The fight is going to happen between Prograis and Taylor, but the boxing public is going to need to wait another three months before the two face each other. Prograis’ promoter Lou DiBella might have something to say about the location of the fight though, because he’s not likely going to be agreeable to the contest taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. After Dillian Whyte’s recent fight against Oscar Rivas, DiBella and a lot of American promoters are going to be cautious about fighting in the UK.