By Brian Webber: Regis Prograis only wants big PPV fights for the remainder of his career after he defends his WBC light welterweight title against Devin Haney on December 9th.
Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) & Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) are headlining on DAZN PPV in a big fight in what he hopes will be a sold-out Chase Center in San Francisco, California.
Haney is the favorite to defeat Prograis, but it’s difficult to predict how this fight will turn out. Devin hasn’t fought at 140 yet, and he’s facing one of the biggest punchers in the division in Prograis, who has been at this weight his entire eleven-year professional career.
If everything works in Prograis’ favor, he’ll defeat Haney and then advance to more significant pay-per-view bouts against Ryan Garcia & Teofimo Lopez.
Those two are the only PPV-level options for Prograis at 140 unless Gervonta Davis wants to come up in weight and fight him, which, given the way PBC & Mayweather Promotions keep him sectioned off from risky opposition, it’s unlikely Regis will get a chance to fight him.
Prograis wants only big PPV fights
“Teo [Lopez], Ryan [Garcia, for me, the big fights. That’s all I want now. I don’t want the small fights. I want the big pay-per-view fights. That’s what I want right now,” said Regis Prograis to the media about what he wants moving forward if he successfully defeats Devin Haney on December 9th.
We’ll see if Prograis gets a chance to fight Ryan Garcia or Teofimo Lopez, but it doesn’t seem likely, though. Teofimo will probably fight Ryan in February because that’s a big PPV-level fight, and Teo has the WBO 140-lb title that Garcia wants.
If Prograis beats Haney, he may have to defend against his WBC mandatory Sandor Martin next. Unfortunately, that won’t be a big PPV fight, so Prograis will need to understand the circumstances.
If he’s going to hold onto the WBC title, he can’t fight only the big names while excluding his mandatory contenders because that would be making a mockery of the sport.
If Prograis only wants to fight the big names, he’ll need to vacate his WBC title to play by his rules and ignore non-stars. That’s bad for the sport to have fighters with Prograis’ attitude about only wanting PPV-level opponents while excluding hungry contenders who are trying to advance their careers.
Prograis’ attitude is similar to what we’re hearing from Jermell Charlo & Terence Crawford, both of whom just want big money fights from this point forward. Like Prograis, they hold world titles but don’t want to defend them against non-big names.
“It’s going to do well. It’s already sold 9,000 tickets already in the first week, so I think it’ll do well,” said Prograis. “I have no expectations. I want it to be a big fight, a big event. This is a big fight.
“I think the boxing fans are tired of putting these fighters against fighters that they know they’re going to win. We need to have these fights that you don’t know. You don’t which side is going to win. I have no expectations. I’m ready to go, and as long as it’s packed, I’m happy with it,” said Prograis.
The networks are the ones that ultimately will need to hold the promotional companies accountable if they only want to put their fighters in contests that are sure thing wins for them.
Prograis will need to face other top guys if he can’t get the fights he wants against Ryan & Teofimo. Sandor Martin, Gary Antuanne Russell, and Richarson Hitchins are good choices.
If the networks put their foot down, telling the promotional companies they won’t put up with fights that aren’t competitive on paper, we’ll finally see change.
Without the networks ensuring only quality fights are shown, the promoters will continue to match their fighters against tomato cans.
You can argue fighters like Gervonta Davis have been matched softly his entire career, and Showtime should have insisted a long time ago that he be matched against quality opposition.
“To me, it doesn’t matter. Size don’t win fights, so I don’t worry about that,” said Prograis about Haney looking like a welterweight during yesterday’s kick-off press conference. “Yeah, he had a little size.”
Size does win fights when you’ve got a guy that is two to three divisions bigger, and that’s one of the reasons for Haney’s success when he was campaigning at 135.
At the press conference this week, Haney looked like a junior middleweight standing next to Prograis, and that size could be a problem for Regis.
“Maybe, we’ll see,” said Prograis when asked if he thinks Haney will be stronger at 140 than he was at 135. “I expect him to be bigger, and I expect him to be stronger.
“I’d rather not fight in my hometown,” said Regis when asked if he’s bothered fighting in Haney’s hometown of San Francisco, given that he’s the champion. “To me, California is cool.
“I won my second world title. There’s something about California that I do good at. I train here, and I used to live here, so I’m cool about it being in the Bay Arena.
Regis vows to “whip Devin”
“Josh Taylor, that’s the only one,” said Prograis when asked if there are any fights on his resume that he wished he’d fought better. “Against Zorilla, I could have done some things differently. It’s past for me. Now, it’s working for the future.”
Prograis should have fought from the outside instead of brawling with Josh Taylor in close in their fight in 2019, and that’s why he lost.
In Prograis’ last bout with Danielto Zorrilla, he couldn’t cut off the ring and looked timid to let his hands go when he would trap him. From the outside, Prograis was unable to jab with Zorrilla, and he was at the mercy of him.
“Right now, I’m working on all my holes,” said Prograis. “I feel like I’m in a good position. All that stuff has prepared me for now. All the waiting and frustration. I told everybody I was going to be a two-time world champion. ‘Oh, you’re stupid.’
“I’m about to fight a pay-per-view fight against Devin Haney, and I’m going to whip Devin Haney’s a**. He [Eddie Hearn] told me, ‘We’re going to get you a fight against Haney or Ryan Garcia.
“We’re going get you big fights,’ and that’s what I did. That’s where we are right now. So that was one of the decisions to go to Matchroom,” said Prograis.
