By Jeff Aronow: Former WBA light welterweight champion Regis Prograis surprised his mother with a brand new house on Christmas. Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) says she had no idea he was buying it for her. He wanted to surprise her with the money he made in 2019, and he definitely did.
This was a real classy move by the Prograis, who is one of the most talented fighters at 140. Although Prograis, 30, lost his WBA light welterweight title to Josh Taylor on October 26, he’s vowing to come back in 2020 and accomplish big things in the year.
Prograis lost to a great fighter in 2012 Olympian Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) in a 12 round majority decision defeat in the final of the World Boxing Super Series in London on October 26. The scores were 117-112, 115-113, 114-114.
Prograis fought well against the unbeaten Scotland native Taylor, but he failed to make the needed adjustments for him to get the ‘W’ in the fight. Normally a dominant fighter on the inside, Prograis was over-matched by Taylor in close.
Just bought my momma a brand new house from the ground up. She had no idea what kind of Christmas gift she was getting. We made her go through a few loops but she finally got her key. pic.twitter.com/ZWExsbF04V
— Rougarou (@RPrograis) December 25, 2019
Regis in position to fight for world titles in 2020
Prograis is ranked #2 WBC, #4 WBA, #9 IBF at light welterweight, and in a position to challenge for a world title against World Boxing Council champion Jose Ramirez. Whether that fight happens or not is up to Ramirez’s promoters at Top Rank. If they feel that Prograis is too risky of a fight for Ramirez, they’ll opt to ignore the fight. Prograis might need to wait until he’s the WBC mandatory before he gets a shot against Ramirez.
Rematch for Prograis against Josh Taylor would interest fans
Taylor and Prograis are destined to fight again, as there was a great deal of interest in their fight last October. A lot of boxing fans want to see Prograis and Taylor battle it out again, but that fight probably won’t happen right away.
Prograis needs to get a win under his belt before he can be considered for a rematch with Taylor, and he needs to improve on the mistakes he made against him. Failing to make the needed changes in his fight against Taylor is disappointing, because Prograis needs to be able to switch things up for him to beat the elite level fighters at 140.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum mentioned Prograis’ name as one of the candidates to challenge WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford in 2020. Having problems getting the elite 147-lb fighters to face Crawford, Arum is interested in matching him next year against the following 140-pounder:
- Regis Prograis
- Jose Ramirez
- Josh Taylor
As one would expect, Ramirez is likely to be the guy that gets the first crack at Crawford, since he’s with Top Rank. However, Prograis might be preferable to Top Rank, because they would be messing up one of their revenue streams if they put Ramirez in with Crawford.