By Brian Webber: After last Saturday’s disappointing debut for WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis for Matchroom Boxing against Danielito Zorrilla, his promoter Eddie Hearn is surprisingly still convinced in his mind that he will defeat Devin Haney, and he’s ready to make that fight next.
With that said, Hearn admits that Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) will be the underdog with the oddsmakers against the unbeaten Haney (30-0, 15 KOs), but he feels that this is a fight that Regis will get up for and will show a much different side to his game than he did against Zorrilla (17-2, 13 KOs), who was brought in as a replacement opponent after the originally scheduled fighter Liam Paro suffered an injury in camp.
Zorrilla exposed Prograis as being ill-equipped to fight an opponent with a long reach that stays on the outside. Prograis’ short arms, which some fans compared to a T-Rex dinosaur, he’s not able to deal with guys that stay outside, jabbing like Zorrilla and Haney.
It’s still not a given that the 24-year-old Haney will take the fight with Prograis, as it’s believed that he could be signing with Top Rank.
If that’s the case, he won’t be fighting Prograis. Instead, Top Rank will attempt to match Haney against Teofimo Lopez if they can persuade him to come out of retirement. If not Teofimo, then Haney could fight for the vacant WBO 140-lb belt against possibly Arnold Barboza Jr, which will be a tough fight for him, possibly as problematic as fighting Regis.
“I think Regis can beat Devin. Now after Saturday, Devin would be a big favorite, but I’m willing to roll the dice, and I don’t have to have necessarily have options on Devin because that’s going to slow things down,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show about his view that WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis will beat Devin Haney.
“Right now, if I’ve got a chance to make a great fight, we rolled the dice. After Saturday, I’ll make Devin the favorite in the fight, but Regis can beat him. Devin Haney believes he can beat him, and my job is not to necessarily start analyzing and making a decision about who beats who.
“My job is to provide the opportunity for the fighter and the team and the training team to decide what fights they want to take. I’m looking at him saying all I care about is that’s a great fight for the fans, that’s a great fight for subscribers.
“That’s going to put bums on seats. That’s a big night for Matchroom. The rest is up to the fighters. I can’t get in there and start cherry [picking soft opposition].
“Regis doesn’t want to be cherry-picking. You saw against the Zorrilla. You’re not going to see the best of him when he’s in against that kind of opposition,” said Hearn.
