Regis Prograis promised Josh Taylor and any other doubter that he isn’t intimidated by Taylor and wasn’t the least bit scared to fight the Scottish southpaw.
The delay in rescheduling their World Boxing Super Series final was related to his contract, according to Prograis, not a reluctance to battle Taylor in the United Kingdom. The 140-pound champions are set to fight for Prograis’ WBA title and Taylor’s IBF belt Saturday night at O2 Arena in London.
New Orleans’ Prograis arrived in London two weeks ago to get acclimated long in advance of their title unification fight. Taylor told Prograis during a face-to-face filming for a Sky Sports preview show that he “tried to pull out” of a fight that’ll take place close to Taylor’s home country of Scotland.
“I think that he was really convinced that I was scared of him,” Prograis told BoxingScene.com. “The people around him were really convincing him of something like that. I was like, ‘Bro, what? You crazy?’ But that was the main thing – I think he thought that I was afraid of him, that I was scared of him. Not only did he think I was afraid of him, he thought I was scared to come to the UK and fight him. It was like, ‘What? That’s definitely not the case.’ That’s crazy, if he thinks that.
“So, I was like, ‘Why am I here right now? If I’m so scared to fight you, why am I here right now? I’m here. I’m actually here early and all that stuff.’ He thought I was scared to fight him. And I just told him my main thing was the contract. You had to get my contract right. The whole thing with him was I always knew I was gonna fight him, but I’m not gonna fight you for free. You know, you get my stuff right, get everything right. Get everything straight. Give me a full training camp, and that’s when the fight’s gonna happen. That’s why we’re here right now. But, like I said, I think he was just convinced that I was scared to fight him, and I was scared to come to London. Now it’s a shock to him that I’m here now.”
Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs) and Taylor (15-0, 12 KOs) first were scheduled to meet October 5. It was delayed once Prograis and his promoter, Lou DiBella, filed a lawsuit against the World Boxing Super Series and Comosa AG, the tournament’s financial backer, for breach of contract. Prograis temporarily withdrew from the tournament when that lawsuit was filed August 9 in a U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Once Prograis received the assurances he sought regarding his purse and other issues, their fight was rescheduled for Saturday night.
“I was always optimistic that it was gonna happen,” Prograis said. “If you look at the World Boxing Super Series, and the history of it, the fights always went through. Not everything was always smooth, but they always happened. So, I never thought the fight wasn’t gonna happen. It was just about when the fight was gonna happen. For me, it wasn’t a case of if the fight was gonna happen. It was always about when the fight was gonna happen. They just got my stuff straight, and that’s all they had to do, and the fight was on. But I never thought the fight wasn’t gonna happen. I always thought that it was gonna happen.”
DAZN will stream Prograis-Taylor live in the United States. Its coverage is set to start at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT.
In the UK, Prograis-Taylor will headline a Sky Sports Box Office pay-per-view show (£19.95; 7 p.m. BST).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
