SAN ANTONIO – Regis Prograis has plenty of options within the junior welterweight division.
Prograis probably will get the fight he wants the most, though, once he moves up to welterweight. The former WBA “super” 140-pound champion expects to eventually secure a rematch with Josh Taylor once they’re both competing in the 147-pound division.
Prograis (25-1, 21 KOs), a New Orleans native who resides in Katy, Texas, discussed the importance of getting a chance to avenge his loss to Taylor following a third-round technical knockout of Juan Heraldez on last month at Alamodome.
“I think I will get it before my career’s over,” Prograis said. “You know, I think he wants it and I want it. You know, so even after our fight in the ring, when he was with the McGuigans, you know, they said we’ll definitely have a rematch. It’ll probably be at 147, so I think it will be a disappointment if I don’t get the rematch. But I think that we’ll definitely have a rematch between me and him.”
Scotland’s Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) edged Prograis by majority decision in a highly competitive, 140-pound title unification fight in October 2019 at O2 Arena in London. Taylor took the WBA “super” title from Prograis and retained his IBF belt in the 12-round final of the World Boxing Super Series’ 140-pound tournament.
Taylor is currently committed to another championship unification match against WBC/WBO champ Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs). Ramirez, of Avenal, California, and Taylor are expected to meet sometime early in 2021.
“I think Taylor will beat Ramirez,” Prograis said. “I just predict that he’ll beat him. I think that he’s the overall better fighter. And Ramirez, he’s still a champion of course, an undefeated champion. But he does have like two blemishes on his record between [Jose] Zepeda and [Viktor] Postol. A lot of people said those fighters actually won. I didn’t say it, but a lot of other people say those fighters, that Zepeda beat him and Postol beat him. So, I think Josh Taylor will beat Ramirez.”
Ramirez, a 2012 U.S. Olympian, won 12-round majority decisions over Zepeda (33-2, 26 KOs, 2 NC) in February 2019 and Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) on August 29. Prograis doesn’t think Postol did enough to beat Ramirez, yet he feels Ramirez’s performance in that fight revealed vulnerabilities.
“[Ramirez] kept coming forward,” Prograis said. “But it depends what you looking at. Boxing is crazy. It depends what you looking at. Ramirez was the aggressive fighter. He kept coming and kept coming, but he was getting hit with a lot of clean shots. Postol just picked him off. He just hit him with the 1-2 all night long, so I mean, I could’ve gave it a draw, honestly.”
Whenever they square off, Prograis expects Ramirez-Taylor to go the distance.
“I don’t think [Taylor] stops him,” Prograis said. “No, because Ramirez is tough. Ramirez could take a punch. He’s definitely tough. I don’t think he can stop him, but I just think, overall, Taylor’s better. I fought him. You know, he has a good inside game. He’s a southpaw, he’s long and if he stays on the outside [against Ramirez], I think he can potentially have an easy night. But the thing is about Taylor, like most of us, we have cojones, the have the balls or whatever, so he might just wanna get in there and fight with Ramirez. And maybe that could be a good thing. Or it could be a bad thing – it depends.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.