By Peter Lim
Regis Prograis was ranked number two by the WBC last year when Terrence Crawford vacated all four 140-pound belts to move up to welterweight. The logical step was for Prograis to fight for the vacant belt against number 1 contender Jose Ramirez. But the sanctioning body inexplicably decreed that Ramirez would fight third-ranked Amir Imam for the belt and Prograis would be matched against fourth-ranked Victor Postol for the interim belt making him the mandatory challenger for the belt.
It didn’t make sense but Prograis went along with the program. Postol suffered and injury and was replaced by Julius Indongo. In March, Prograis stopped Indongo in two rounds and Ramirez decisioned Imam over 12 rounds. Ramirez and Prograis were slated to face each other but again, things didn’t go according to planned.
Ramirez opted to make his first defense in his hometown on Fresno, CA, against Danny O’Conner before taking on his mandatory Prograis. That fight didn’t take place either after O’Connor was taken to the hospital for dehydration prior to the weigh in.
But as one door slammed shut on Prograis, another one opened up for him. While Ramirez was preparing for his hometown defense, Prograis had scheduled a homecoming of his own in New Orleans, the city where he grew up but was uprooted from by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Prograis (21-0, 18 KOs) takes on Juan Jose Velasco (20-0, 11 KOs) of Argentina on July 14 at the Lakefront Arena, spitting distance from where he grew up. The fight will be aired on ESPN.
“I really don’t know anything about Velasco since he’s rarely fought in the United States but I never take anyone lightly,” Prograis said to BoxingScene.com. “He’s a professional fighter that is undefeated and that’s all I need to know.”
The trade-off was worth it, Prograis said, especially since the victor will move on to the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) 140-pound tournament, where two world titles will be at stake.
“Just to be fighting in my hometown is the best news right there in itself,” Prograis said. “Then with the winner going to the tournament, and the tournament has two different belts, it’s a lot better.”
Thus far, besides the winner of Prograis-Velasco, WBA titleholder Kiryl Relikh, Josh Taylor, Ivan Baranchyk, Eduard Troyanovsky, Anthony Yigit and two more boxers will compete in the eight-man WBSS tournament. Besides Relikh’s belt, the IBF title, recently vacated by Mikey Garcia, is also expected to be in the mix.
“A lot of people would think that me and Josh Taylor would go to the finals, but I think it’ll be me and Baranchyk,” Prograis said. “Baranchyk, to me, is the harder fight.”
Ironically, the demise of his hard-earned world title fight with Ramirez was not the first time a negative morphed into a positive for Prograis. In retrospect, he has described Hurricane Katrina as a “blessing in disguise” since it blew him to Houston, one of the biggest training Meccas in boxing.
“I don’t think I’d be the fighter I am right now if the storm didn’t happen and if I actually stayed in New Orleans,” Prograis said.
“The way I grew up in New Orleans is not the way I live in Houston, which is a good thing because I grew up having a lot of fun doing all kinds of stuff on the streets. In Houston I don’t do that because I have the focus.”
Ramirez recently suggested that his fight with Prograis was not cancelled indefinitely, but merely postponed to a later date in which it will be more lucrative for both all parties involved. Should Prograis win the WBSS, he will likely walk away with two titles under his belt. In the meantime, Ramirez intends to defend his WBC belt and add on the WBO title recently claimed by Maurice Hooker.
“For me, that’s fine,” Prograis said. “I think that’s what his promoter Bob Arum wants. If he has two titles by the time I do the tournament, then of course I’ll fight him. If everything happens the right way, yeah. But that’s a long way. We’ll see.”
