Unmarked from his Fight of the Year contender with Joseph Diaz Jnr, Regis Prograis said with a smile: “I don’t feel it, bro. You can look at my face. I have nothing on my face.”
It is more than a week on, and Prograis is fresh-faced and ready to go again already.
“Today is a week from the fight day, but even on Sunday, the day after, I didn’t have nothing. I look the same. I don’t have nothing on my face. I mean we did kind of bump heads a lot. I was a little sore up here a little bit, but I didn’t have nothing on my face, but I loved it.
“I loved everything about the fight. I loved everything about the training camp. This camp, I really locked in. I really did focus and I’m glad I did.”
Prograis left the comforts of home behind to train in Las Vegas for a couple of months and focused on the job on hand. With the type of fight Diaz put up, it is just as well no corner was cut.
“I’m glad I did that,” said the 36-year-old two-time 140lbs champion. “’Cause I definitely felt like if I would’ve never did that, I probably would’ve lost that fight. I’m glad I did leave my house and I really did a real training camp.
“I was focused and I feel like I’m getting back to being that again – being back to being a focused fighter and just not worrying about too much outside stuff.”
Because for all of the work Prograis, 30-3 (24 KOs), put in, he recognises he had not expected such a battle in Illinois.
“Man, looking at his record, I thought I was going to stop him,” he said. “I always underestimate my opponents. So no matter who I fight, I always think like I’m going to smash him. I’m going to smoke him. So, you know, going into that fight, I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to get Jojo out of there in one or two rounds’. And I was wrong.
“You know, he trained hard for that. He was in shape. He came in in shape. I was looking at his body at first and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get him out of there, you know?’ “But he was tougher than I thought for sure.”
Diaz also hurt Prograis in the first round.
“He got me first, yeah,” Prograis continued.
“First round, he caught me with something. He caught me on the right side of my head and it kind of made my left foot kind of go numb; my left leg went numb a little bit. I never had that happen like that in a fight before. He did catch me early.”
Prograis, who said he did not take one drugs test for the fight, has watched the action-packed contest back.
“It was insane,” he said. “It definitely was insane to me, too. I didn’t like the commentary. I saw the commentary; Sergio Mora was saying some things. It was like, ‘Oh, could Jojo bring back the hands of time?’ I’m like, ‘Jojo? What do you mean?’ ‘I’m like five years older than Jojo. What you talking about?’ It seemed they was like on his side, but I mean, it is what it is. It felt like they had a favorite a little bit in a fight and I guess that’s what it was.”
There were commentators’ references to Prograis’ legs perhaps not being as they once were.
“I felt like after the first round, I felt like I was fine,” he explained. “I have bad balance. I do. Naturally I’m flat-footed. My dad is the same. My dad never been a fighter, but he’s flat-footed. I’m flat-footed and I’m a fighter. I’ve been like this my whole life. I do have to get my legs a little stronger, but the main thing is like my balance is off. So even when I’m not getting hit, I can move around and my balance is just off a little bit. So that’s one thing I do have to work on. I have to just work on my balance, but my legs was fine after the first round.”
There were times when the analysts said that Prograis was hurt, but he said the opening session was the only time.
There was also a highlight-reel moment when Diaz, with his left eye bleeding and closing, was asked by the ringside doctor whether he could continue. On at least three occasions he didn’t give the right answer when the doctor held his fingers up and asked him how many there were to count.
“I’m glad the fight went on – I’m definitely glad,” Prograis said. “’Cause it’s a classic now. We went at it, but at the same time, it’s like, ‘What’s the point of even asking if you will let him continue?’ He said, ‘How many fingers?’ ‘Two.’ ‘How many fingers?’ ‘One.’ And he flunked it two or three times. So it’s like, what’s the point of the doctor even coming on the ropes and doing it?
“I feel like it’s no point to even ask if you’re going to let him fight if you will let him continue to fight anyway.”
