By Jim Calfa: Regis Prograis believes Devin Haney will fall apart and take a “nap” when he lands his big shots on him if the two fight this year.
If the Haney fight fails to happen, WBC light welterweight champion Prograis, 34, says his promoter Eddie Hearn will try and match him in a unification against IBF belt holder Subriel Matias. That guy is a dangerous puncher with massive power in both hands.
Haney has a lot of doubters that he needs to prove wrong after his last fight, so he will need to perform to show that he’s got what it takes to be a star.
The undisputed lightweight champion Haney is moving up in weight to 140 after his victory over Vasyl Lomachenko, and he wants to become a two-division world champ right away by challenging Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) for his WBC title.
It’s still too early to know for sure if Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) will fight Prograis, but if it does happen, it’s going be a huge one that will generate a lot of interest for the 140-lb division.
Prograis has a title defense he needs to get out of the way first against Danielito Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KOs) on June 17th. This will be Prograis’ first defense of his WBC 140-lb title that he won last November against Jose Zepeda.
Prograis vs. Haney possible
“Eddie said [Subriel] Matias for unification, and you know, maybe even Haney. You know Haney had one more fight or something like that on the contract with them. So maybe I can fight Haney or Matias,” said Regis Prograis to Fight Hub TV about him possibly fighting Devin Haney after his next title defense on June 17th.
“Eddie told me that a while ago that ‘We’re going to try to
get Devin.’ He said, ‘You and Devin is going to be a big fight. We’re
going to try to bring back Devin after the Loma fight,’ and it looks like that’s what’s happening,” said Prograis.
It’ll be great if Hearn can come through for Prograis with getting him the Haney fight, as that would easily be his biggest match-up since his 2019 bout against Josh Taylor.
“I won’t be disrespectful. I’m going to say this without being too
disrespectful. I felt like he lost against Loma. I felt like Loma won it wasn’t a robbery, and I do feel like if I land those same shots
that Loma landed on Devin, it’s not gonna be good.
“I don’t want to be too disrespectful because we might fight, and I want to save that for the fight, save that for the press conference and all that type of stuff. But Loma was touching him up,” said Prograis.
Regis warns Haney
“He had some welts on his face, and all that stuff, and Loma is a 130-pounder,” said Prograis about Haney’s face after the Lomachenko fight. “You’re talking about somebody that’s been at 140 his whole career, and I’m a big puncher at 140, and I really hurt people, so
just saying just off for that performance his last performance against
Loma, if I hit him with those same shots, I definitely feel like it’s; it’s good night for sure. No decision, no, none of that stuff. It’ll be nap time, for sure.
“I really feel like I can hurt him when I hit him with those shots. I could really hurt him. Yeah, he’s a good boxer, he’s good and all that stuff, but once you get hit with them little bitty eight-ounce gloves by somebody like me that’s trying to knock your head off your shoulders, [it’s over].
“It changed a lot of things up, a lot of controversy over the weekend
from that fight, though a lot of people re-watching the fight and saying Haney did win,” said Prograis.
