By Mark Eisner: WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) won a less than impressive twelve round split decision over little-known substitute Danielito Zorrilla (17-2, 13 KOs) on Saturday in a dull fight at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The scores were 118-109, 117-110 for Prograis, and 114-113 for Zorrilla.
Zorrilla appeared to drop Prograis in the first round after nailing him with a right hand that had him holding on to avoid from falling.
In the third, Prograis dropped Zorrilla with a lead left hand to the head.
Where Zorrilla went wrong is he moved too much, and didn’t want stand and fight. It was a winnable fight for Zorrilla, but he chose to move too much, allowing Prograis to stock him.
Undercard results
- Undefeated welterweight contender Shakhram Giyasov (14-0, 9 KOs) outclassed previously unbeaten Harold Calderon (27-1, 18 KOs), winning a wide twelve round unanimous decision in the chief support bout. The scores were 120-108, 118-110, and 116-112. The last score made zero sense, as the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Giyasov appeared to win 11-1. Calderon, 35, wasn’t letting his hands go and getting dominated by the showboating 29-year-old Uzbek Giyasov. For the most part, Giyasov came forward all night, fighting with his hands down, throwing one punch at a time. The variety of shots that Giyasov was throwing had Calderon looking confused and timid, even though he appeared to have the better power.
- In an exciting ending, Julissa Alejandra Guzman (13-2-2, 7 KOs) knocked out the previously unbeaten IBF Inter-continental female super bantamweight champion Ramla Ali (8-1, 2 KOs) with a picture-perfect left hook to the head that folded her on her back in the eighth round. The 33-year-old Ramla tried to get back to her feet to beat the count, but she didn’t make it in time. It’s a good thing that Ramla didn’t beat the count because she was badly hurt, and Guzman would have likely finished her. The time of the stoppage was at 0:42 of round eight. Ramla made the mistake of exchanging left hooks with Guzman, and she paid for her mistake.
- Super featherweight Jeremy Hill (19-3, 12 KOs) knocked out Mark Davis (19-2, 14 KOs) in the fourth round of a scheduled eight round contest. Fighting in front of his hometown crowd, Hill dropped the 36-year-old Davis with a right hand to the head that sent him partially through the ropes. Referee Terry Boundraux then waived the fight off. The time of the stoppage was at 1:29 of round four. You can argue that the referee might have been too fast in pulling the plug on the fight, but it’s likely that Davis would have been finished off by Hill had it been allowed to continue. The loss spoiled Davis’ second fight of his comeback. He recently came out of retirement last year after being inactive since 2014. For Hill, 30, he picked up an excellent win. He’d been recently destroyed in three rounds by the hard-hitting Raymond Muratalla. Hill is an excellent fighter for someone with three defeats on his record. He just needs a little more development to take advantage of his talent and good power.
- Unbeaten female flyweight prospect Ginny Fuchs (3-0, 1 KOs) dominated Indeya Smith (6-7-2, 1 KOs), winning a one-sided eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 79-73, 80-72, and 80-72. Fuchs, 35, suffered a bad cut over his left eye.
- Light welterweight Xavier Madrid (6-2, 2 KOs) defeated Aaron Aponte (7-1, 1 KOs) by an eight round split decision. The judge’s scores were 78-73 for Aponte, 76-75, and 76-75 for Madrid.
Regis Prograis makes a defense of his WBC light welterweight title against Danielito Zorrilla in the headliner fight tonight on DAZN from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The time of the fight tonight is at approximately 10:21 p.m. ET.
In the chief support bout, welterweight Shakhram Giyasov (13-0, 9 KO) faces the unbeaten Harold Calderon (27-0, 18 KO) in a WBA 147-lb title eliminator.
Prograis-Zorrilla Prediction
This writer sees Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) defeating Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KOs) by a seventh round knockout. Zorrilla has a good chin, as we saw in his loss to Arnold Barboza Jr last year, but he’s easy to hit and his habit of going to war with his opponents will likely come back to haunt him against the heavy-handed Prograis.
“Regis just said, ‘I’m the best in the world, and I’m going to show you tomorrow night.’ Zorrilla was just calm, actually. Zorrilla kissed his biceps, and Regis was getting a little bit agitated. He’s ready to go,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype when asked what was said between Regis Prograis and Danielito Zorrilla during their face-off at the weigh-in last Friday.
“It’s going to be a great atmosphere. This city should really get behind Regis Prograis, and they will. I think it’s going to be a great fight.
“If you look at the co-main. Fight fans know about Shakhram Giyasov. He’s one of the best amateurs out of Uzbekistan. Calderon is 27-0. He’s a good fighter but has never really been tested.
“This guy has been in my DMs for two years saying, ‘I’ll fight any welterweight in the world.’ So it’s actually a really good. 50-50 fight between two top 15 World light welterweights rates that want to make their name and try and challenge for a world title. So that’s a really good fight.
“I actually think Prograis-Zorrilla will be a good fight. I think it’ll be a
really competitive fight and I think Regis will stop him yeah you know I just think he’s [Zorrilla] a good fighter. Robert Diaz is on the team at Cotto Promotions. They rate him.
“He’s got to be nice and long, nice & sharp. Regis is very aggressive, very heavy-handed, and if you let him get inside you and work the body and work inside, he’s going to really bust him up.
“So Zorrilla, I’m guessing, will probably want to try and keep it long. He’s much taller than Regis Prograis and has a much longer reach than Regis Prograis and he’s technically, he’s an accomplished fighter.
“I think Regis will stop him but I think it’ll be very competitive for six rounds and I expect Regis to come through. There’s a lot of pressure on Regis. I mean, he’s done a lot of promotion for this fight he’s the first time he’s boxed in New Orleans for like five years and he’ll want to make a statement as well.
“For Regis, we want to deliver him a lot of activity, a lot of promotion, and the biggest fights out there. So you know you look towards Haney. Obviously, we’ll see what Teoimo does. Jack Catterall with us deserves a shot at a world title as well.
“We’ve got a lot of other 140-pounders. We’ve got a great fight between Richardson Hitchens and Montana Love in Detroit. It’s going to be a lot of fun. So I want to keep him active.
“I want to build on this. You know we should have six or seven thousand in there tomorrow night. I want to try and make that nine or ten next time when we come back in September or October,” said Hearn.