By Adam Baskin: Regis Prograis predicts he’s going to knockout Devin Haney when he defends his WBC light welterweight title against the opportunist in October.
Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) says the only reason Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) has chosen to fight him is because of his off performance last June against Danielito Zorrilla, who he beat by a twelve round split decision.
Regis, 34, says if he had beaten Zorrila by a first round knockout, he’d be defending against his WBC mandatory Sandor Martin next because Haney wouldn’t have wanted to face him. Hence, the opportunist label, which is a euphemism for cherry picker.
Haney’s tools for winning
- Jab
- Clinching
- Mobility
- Roughhouse tactics
Prograis states that if he doesn’t knock out Haney, he’s going to “hurt” through the whole twelve round fight. For him to do that, he’s going to need to get past Haney’s jab, which is the primary weapon in his offensive arsenal.
The other tool in Haney’s toolkit that Prograis must deal with is his frequent clinching. In Haney’s last fight against Vasily Lomachenko, he didn’t use that tactic nearly as often as he had in his two fights against George Kambosos Jr., but the likely reason for that is because Loma made it difficult for him to hold.
Prograis thinks the sanctioning bodies need to strip Haney of his lightweight titles, which he’s chosen to hold onto an insurance plan in case things go wrong for him in October.
The World Boxing Council has already said they’re stripping Haney and will be giving him the ‘Champion in Recess’ due to him choosing to bypass his WBC mandatory Shakur Stevenson to move up to challenge Prograis for his belt.
Haney keeping 135-lb titles as insurance
The WBC will allow Haney to face whoever captures the vacant 135-lb title, with a split of 50-50.
That pretty much means Haney won’t be returning to recapture his WBC 135-lb belt, but the other reason is that Shakur is the one that will likely wind up with the belt.
“I’m stopping Haney. I don’t care what he’s got. We working on s**t right now,” said Regis Prograis to ESNEWS about his plans on dealing with Devin Haney’s clinching to knock him out.
“If I don’t, I’m going to hurt him for twelve rounds. If I had knocked Zorrilla in the first round, I’d have been fighting Sandor Martin. That’s my mandatory.
“I’m going to beat your a**,” said Prograis’ message to Haney. “This Haney s**t ain’t going to be nothing like that [Zorrilla].”
Many boxing fans believe Haney’s fighting style is all wrong for Prograis, considering he’s capable of doing everything that Zorrilla did and more. Haney is a better fighter than Zorrilla. If Prograis hasn’t fixed the flaws in his defense that Zorrilla exposed, he’s going to lose to Devin.
“He trying to have a protection plan, and then try to have a cushion at 135 to say ‘I’m still undisputed.’ Have confidence in yourself,” said Prograis about Haney wanting to keep his titles at 135 just in case he loses to him.
“He is trying to come up to 140 to see if he can get this belt, which he is not going to get,” Regis said about Devin.
