Regis Prograis insists that he will not be tempted to return from retirement, despite having previously indicated that his career was over and then fought twice more.
He announced his retirement at the age of 37 in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat by Conor Benn, on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Their fight, at a catchweight of 150lbs, was the 34th of a fine career in which he twice won versions of the junior welterweight world title and, during the course of defeats by Josh Taylor, Devin Haney, Jack Catterall and Benn, was never once stopped.
It is that he was partly attempting to preserve when, he explained, before he fought the 29-year-old Benn he made the decision that the fight would be his last.
He had also said that he carried injuries into the ring that night, but is adamant that they did not affect his performance and therefore that they did not influence him when he decided to retire.
“In the last fight of my career – I’m 37 – he’s supposed to be the naturally bigger, stronger guy, [and] he couldn’t stop me,” Prograis told BoxingScene. “He was throwing big punches and he couldn’t stop me. That’s what I really wanted. I knew I was retiring going into the fight. I’m just happy that it turned out like this. I got to fight on Netflix; I got to fight in a different country; a big old card like that. It’s a great storybook ending for my career.
“I’m definitely retired. It’s not emotions. I’d thought about it already – before the fight I knew I was gonna retire. After the [in August, Joseph] Diaz fight I knew I wanted to retire, but I was like ‘Man, let me get one more’. This was the perfect ending fight for me – the storybook ending. I wanted to be the champion – I did that – and it sounds crazy but I never wanted to be stopped.
“I was just emotional after [the Catterall fight in October 2024, when I spoke of retiring]. I knew I could still do it. Everyone my friends told me ‘You still got a lot left’. ‘Yeah, you’re right – that wasn’t the right fight to retire on.’ This one was. After the Catterall fight, that was emotions.
“Just because I’m retired don’t mean I’m leaving boxing. I’m still gonna hit the gym; I like to work out. I’m still gonna spar. One person I look up to is Shawn Porter. Shawn still goes to the gym; he still trains; he’s still active. But he doesn’t want to be in training camp. That’s the thing – I don’t want to be in training camp again. I’m still gonna spar; I’m still gonna be active. I love to work out so I’m still gonna be lifting weights – I do want to change my body and get some muscle on. That’s kinda what I’ve been doing the last few months anyway. I just don’t want to be in training camp no more; I don’t want to make weight no more. This will stick.
“I don’t want to do it no more. I don’t want to be a professional fighter. I still will go in the gym and spar with these guys; maybe get into someone’s training camp and go spar with them. But as far as being a professional fighter, I don’t want to do it.”
Prograis was then asked about the injuries that were rumoured about, pre-fight, and that he spoke about after an evening on which the performance of England’s Benn was widely criticised, and he responded: “The injuries wasn’t what people thought it was. People thought it was my legs. I have naturally bad balance. You could hit me with a baseball bat and I’ll keep on, and I know eventually if I fight these guys I will get hurt. [But] the injury had nothing to do with the fight.
“I hurt my right hand – I thought as soon as I landed a punch my right hand would shatter. Nothing happened – my right hand still feels the same. I had an injury to my left eye in training camp. Nothing happened to my left eye. I had sore jaw stuff – that’s gonna be sore no matter what, but nothing happened. The injuries that happened to me in training camp didn’t come on in the fight.”
He, finally, was asked about his finest opponent throughout the course of his career. He fought Taylor and Haney on the nights of perhaps their very best performances; the Taylor fight was also the final of the competitive and celebrated edition of the World Boxing Super Series at 140lbs.
“At the time it was Josh Taylor,” Prograis answered. “At the time. At the time I was stopping everybody. I was 24-0 going into the fight. That was my first loss. I still feel like I won the fight, but at the same time this was still my first loss.
“Devin Haney’s real good, skill-wise.
“Conor Benn has a lot of power – he does. But he’s very predictable. He throws over and over and over again. He does have a lot of power. He’s the strongest fighter I ever fought, and we fought with 10oz gloves on. He hits the hardest.
“Devin had the most skill. But as far as all-around fighter it was Josh Taylor.
“I still have a lot of things left I wanna do. Books; movies; I’m still gonna be active as far as in boxing, maybe doing some commentating. I’m gonna go to the fights all the time and support. Everybody supported me throughout my career – I did have a great career, especially where I came from. Nobody would think I could do something like this and I did. I never, never gave up. I thank everybody for sticking with me. We’ll see what happens next.”
