Richardson Hitchins predicts an easy victory for Devin Haney in his title challenge of WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis on December 9th on DAZN PPV at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Hitchins feels that Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) is just a basic fighter with power but lacking in technical skills, punch variety, or mobility and will be easy work for the former undisputed lightweight champion Haney (30-0, 15 KOs).
Haney is moving up in weight to try and become a two-division world champion, and he’s chosen what some believe is the weakest link among four champions at 140.
The 34-year-old Prograis was exposed in his last fight against Danielito Zorrilla last June and came close to losing to a fighter that he should have been able to easily dominate if he had the talent that some previously thought. That fight showed these glaring flaws in Prograis’ game:
- No jab
- Inability to cut off the ring
- Limited offensive arsenal
- Timid nature – unwillingness to put himself in the line of fire to land his shots
Promoter Eddie Hearn has to be thinking that he made a mistake in signing Prograis to his Matchroom stable because he looked so bad against Zorrilla. It’ll be interesting to see if Hearn quits Prograis like a bad habit if he loses to Haney, as it wouldn’t make sense to keep him on his Matchroom stable.
It might be better for Hearn to trim the fat and throw Prograis overboard or maybe feed him to the sharks, Hitchins, Gary Antuanne Russell, or Sandor Martin before dumping him. Prograis would make for good ground bait chum to lure these sharks for an entertaining fight on DAZN.
It’s widely believed that Haney chose to fight Prograis out of all the 140-lb champions because of how awful he looked against Zorrilla, and you can’t blame him for that.
Haney will dominate Prograis
“If I believe Devin Haney is who he says he is, he’s going to go out there and cooks Regis’ a** in a competitive fight, but I see a dominant Devin,” said Richardson Hitchins to MillCity Boxing, predicting a win for Devin Haney over WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis on December 9th.
“The only slip-up I can see for Devin is he do slow down late in a fight. He do get touched in a fight. He’s not defensively as smart as me. I got spider senses. I see s***,” said Hitchins.
Haney sometimes gets involved in brawls with his opponents, and that would be Prograis’ only chance of winning. If he can land one of his big left hooks on Haney’s chin, he could hurt him. In Haney’s fight with Jorge Linares, he was badly hurt by a huge shot in the sixth.
From that point on, Linares was able to continually stagger Haney whenever he connected cleanly.
The only reason Haney survived is because he clinched nonstop in the last six rounds. If Linares had an inside game or the sense to fight through the clinches, he would surely have knocked Haney.
If Prograis’ trainer was on the ball, he’d have him well-prepared to handle the clinching that Haney will be doing on December 9th because he’s likely to do quite a bit of it.
“I feel like Regis can maybe slip some s*** in there. Let’s see, but Regis ain’t s***. Regis is straight up and down with no special effects,” said Hitchins. “The only thing he has is punching power and a left hand because Regis has no crazy uppercut or no crazy hook.
“He moving his upper body like he’s retarded. He’s got no skills. He don’t counter-punch or nothing. He just punches when you’re punching. He don’t go no jab, no footwork, no fast [hand speed]. He’s trash.
“[Jose] Zepeda fought him in a back-and-forth fight. He [Prograis] stopped him. Cool. If he gets in the ring with me, I’ll beat the s*** out of Regis in every round in a sparring or in a fight.
“His only confidence is his power. He’s a midget. He couldn’t even get close to that bum [Danielito Zorrilla] that he fought in his last fight [in June 2023 in New Orleans].
“Devin is going to beat him. If I can get the winner of that, let’s do it. If not, depending on how the fight goes, it might be a close fight. Me and Regis could line it up. After that, the winner could get Devin. I don’t know how this s*** going to go, but Regis can say whatever he wants,” said Hitchins.
The Matchroom Boxing promoted Hitchins hopes to fight the winner or loser of the Haney vs. Prograis fight, which is highly unlikely to happen. Hitchin’s recent horrible, safety-first performance against Jose Zepeda rivaled Shakur Stevenson in terms of being boring.
After the way Hitchins fought, he’s very likely to be ignored and avoided for the rest of his career by Haney, Prograis, and other top fighters. Hitchins will need to abandon his Shakur step-back style if he wants to get a chance to fight Devin and other top fighters one of these days.
Hearn might need to cut Hitchins from his Matchroom stable before long, just like Prograis, because none of the popular fighters at 140 will ever want to fight him because he has the same ugly, defensive-minded game as Shakur & Keyshawn Davies.
Those styles are NOT entertaining and are poisonous for a promoter like Hearn. He aims to provide exciting fights for DAZN, and he can’t do that with boring, defensive fighters like Hitchins.
