Prograis: How Would Crawford Handle Firefight With Big Puncher?
By Keith Idec
Regis Prograis wasn’t the least bit relieved when Terence Crawford gave up his 140-pound titles to move up to welterweight.
Prograis will face an opponent Crawford dominated, Viktor Postol, for one of the titles Crawford relinquished March 9 at Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, South Dakota. The powerful southpaw from New Orleans would’ve preferred, though, to test himself against the unbeaten Omaha native who’s commonly considered one of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
The confident Prograis respects Crawford’s boxing ability and IQ in the ring. The Houston resident just hasn’t seen how Crawford would respond in a dogfight and would’ve welcomed that challenge.
Prograis (20-0, 17 KOs) discussed that lost opportunity during the most recent episode of SiriusXM’s “At The Fights.”
“I wanted Terence Crawford,” Prograis said. “Listen, the thing about Terence Crawford, I feel like he’s very intelligent in the ring and he’s a beautiful boxer. But I wanna see him get in a real firefight with somebody that’s a big puncher, you know, like myself. If I fight Terence Crawford, you know, he probably could, maybe, out-box me – maybe. I can box, also, but when I hit people I hurt ‘em and I know that.”
Prograis’ power will be put to the test against Postol in a fight Showtime will televise. Ukraine’s Postol took everything Argentinean knockout artist Lucas Matthysse hit him with and knocked out Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs, 1 NC) in the 10th round of their fight October 2015 fight for the WBC 140-pound championship in Carson, California.
Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) was too skilled for Postol (29-1, 12 KOs) in their super lightweight title unification fight in July 2016 in Las Vegas, but Postol is the best opponent Prograis will have faced in his five-year pro career.
“He’s tall, lanky, of course,” Prograis said regarding Postol. “I feel like he has some type of a good boxing IQ. He’s definitely more experienced than I am. I think he has deceptive power. He did knock out Matthysse. Matthysse has big knockout power, also. … He took his punches, he finished him off and he knocked him out. So that’s what I see in him.
“I just wanna make a statement, just like I did in my last fight [a second-round stoppage of Joel Diaz Jr. on June 9]. My last fight, I just wanted to go and make a big statement. And this will be an even bigger statement. Especially if I can knock Postol out, I think it’ll be a huge statement in the boxing world that people will know. Everybody will know who I am.”
Crawford, meanwhile, is expected to challenge Australia’s Jeff Horn (18-0-1, 11 KOs) for the WBO welterweight title April 14 at Madison Square Garden.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
