Regis Prograis vs. Josh Taylor on October 5 in UK for WBSS final

By Boxing News - 07/25/2019 - Comments

Image: Regis Prograis vs. Josh Taylor on October 5 in UK for WBSS final

By Dean Flessel: Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor will be meeting up on October 5 in the World Boxing Super Series light welterweight final in the UK, according to Dan Rafael. The venue for the fight still has yet to be determined.

The only place that makes sense in the UK for the Prograis-Taylor fight is in Glasgow, Scotland. That’s the unbeaten Taylor’s hometown, and he’s a big draw there.  Putting the fight in London wouldn’t work, because it might not draw there.

Fans eager to watch Prograis vs. Taylor final

There’s a lot of interest in this fight by both hardcore and casual boxing fans. Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs) is the #1 seed in the WBSS 140 pound tournament, and the guy that is expected to win.  Prograis, 30, has looked like an unstoppable force of nature in beating Terry Flanagan and Kiryl Relikh in the WBSS tournament.

Prograis’ recent sixth round stoppage victory over former WBA light welterweight champion Relikh last April was a thing of beauty. He shut down Relikh’s potent offense, and schooled him for the first five rounds before stopping him in the sixth round.

Taylor’s best shot at winning

The way that Taylor looked in his semifinal fight against Ivan Baranchyk, he’s going to need to fight at home for him to upset Prograis.  Taylor, 28, had a good sixth round in twice dropping the normally steel chinned Baranchyk. However, there were no other knockdowns in the fight, and Baranchyk came back strong to land a lot of big shots in rounds 7 through 12.

Taylor didn’t have an easy time in winning by the scores 115-111, 117-109 and 115-111. If you subtract those two knockdowns in the sixth round, we’ve got a very close fight on two of the judges’ scorecards. The judge that scored it 117-109, Levi Martinez, was in his own world, seeing the fight in a different light than the way that a lot of boxing fans saw it. Taylor’s going to have a difficult time trying to land his uppercut against Prograis. That’s Taylor’s bread and butter punch in a big way, and he’s going to need to connect with plenty of those shots for him to have a shot at beating Prograis.

Prograis’s accuracy is going to be a problem for Taylor

Regis’ crazy accuracy with his punches is going to be a real nightmare for Taylor in this fight. The 2012 Olympian Taylor hasn’t fought anyone close to this type of talent since he turned pro, and he’s not going to have much margin for error each time he attempts to initiate something. Prograis can’t miss with miss with his shots, and he hits so hard. The 5’10” Taylor will need to be conservative with his offense by sitting behind his jab, and looking to use his height and reach advantage over the 5’8″ Prograis.  The southpaw Taylor can’t depend on his stance in winning this fight, because Prograis is also a southpaw,

 

YouTube video