By Thomas Gerbasi
When Regis Prograis returns home to New Orleans and faces Juan Jose Velasco on July 14, he will do so as a conquering hero, complete with an interim world title belt around his waist, a perfect record and the prospect for even bigger and better fights in the near future.
But the 29-year-old southpaw has never forgotten where he’s come from, not just literally, but figuratively. And though he doesn’t carry those one-dollar checks he used to make in his wallet, he still has them, and he will never let them go.
“Out of my first ten fights, about four or five of those, I fought for free,” Prograis said. “But they have to give you a check, so they give you a one-dollar check and I still have them.”
In those early fights, Prograis was like the majority of boxers when he should have been among the minority as a hot prospect with the backing of a high-powered manager and promoter. Instead, he trained, he fought and he won, a lone wolf hoping that his talent would be enough to get him to the next level.
“I think a lot of my hunger comes from my earlier days,” said Prograis, a decorated amateur with an 87-7 record that took him all the way to the 2012 Olympic trials. He didn’t win a place on the 2012 U.S. team, so it was off to the pros, where there was little fanfare.
“I was fighting on TV and still working jobs and struggling,” he recalls. “I still remember those days of how hard it was for me. But I know there’s something always gonna be deep down inside me that’s going to push me over the top.”
Prograis’ march up the 140-pound ladder is the rare case of talent and hard work actually being rewarded by the sport. And once he linked up with promoter Lou DiBella, everything picked up speed, with the result being several ShoBox appearances that put him on the map and eventually put him in position to win a world title, which he did when he stopped Julius Indongo in March for the interim WBC junior welterweight belt.
Now everyone knows about “Rougarou,” and while the homecoming fight against Velasco is nice from a storyline point of view, the real fun begins on July 15, as Prograis is expected to join the next World Boxing Super Series tournament slated to begin later this year should he emerge victorious against the Argentinean.
It’s the first step of a world domination plan for the 29-year-old, who wants to repeat the feat pulled off by the last king of the 140-pounders, Terence Crawford.
“I’m ready to go out there and show people I’m the best. I know a lot of people are calling me the best right now at 140, but there are still a lot of people out there doubting me. Some people think that (Jose Carlos) Ramirez can beat me, that Josh Taylor can beat me, and I don’t really see any other names out there at 140. So I want to prove all the doubters wrong. I don’t have any major belts. I have an interim title, so I want the major belts so I can be the legitimate king at 140. Right now I’m the uncrowned king, basically, and I want all the titles. I want to do the same thing Crawford did. He took every title and there was no debate about who was the best at 140 when he was there. I want to do the same thing before I even think about going up.”
But before any of that can be put into motion, Prograis has a date with Velasco, a 31-year-old who brings a 20-0 record into the bout. Impressive on paper, but the Buenos Aires product hasn’t exactly been fighting championship-level competition. That doesn’t matter to Prograis, who trains for every fight like he’s facing a hybrid of King Kong and Godzilla.
“My training camps are extremely hard,” he said. “And in the gym I get pushed by very, very good sparring partners. All my sparring partners are undefeated as pros and top guys, and a lot of them are bigger. So I prepare myself to go into deep waters. I’m prepared for 12 rounds of an all-out war. But right now, there’s been nobody that can hang with me. I haven’t found that person. I think every fighter is waiting for that fight, and that’s what I do my training camps for. Every training camp, I expect that fight to come out of me and to get pushed to the physical limit and have to go past that.”
Prograis recalls a conversation with former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, who told him of his own desire to get that fight where he had to dig deep and go into those dark places to get the win. “Big Daddy” found that fight in his first meeting with Evander Holyfield.
“When he was coming up he said he always wanted that fight and he was ready for that fight,” said Prograis. “For him, it was the Holyfield fight that pushed him and he said he wanted it to show what he was really made of and what he was capable of. Holyfield brought the best out of him. That’s what I’m training for, for somebody to bring the best out of me. I can do so many different things: I can box, I can bang, I can be defensive. But right now I haven’t had that opponent to bring out all my different assets. And you never who might bring it out of me one day. It might be somebody that’s least expected or it might be somebody that people expect to bring it out of me.”
Is Ramirez that somebody?
“I don’t think so,” Prograis said. “The thing with Ramirez is that I feel his style is tailor-made for my style. He’s not very defensive, so he gets hit with a lot of punches. And with me, you can’t let me hit you. If I hit somebody, I’m gonna hurt them, no matter who I hit. I know that for sure. I’ve got power in both my hands, I can work the body or go upstairs and I can hurt somebody with any punch. Ramirez is open for all of them and he’s very predictable. He’s in shape and he comes to fight all the time, but I just can’t see that style beating me.”
At this point, it’s likely that Prograis can’t see any style beating him. He’s looked that good, and he’s only getting better. But if you think he might be getting ahead of himself, that’s not the case, because he will never forget what it took to get here, and he’s not going back.
“I had to grow up fast,” Prograis said. “I had a whole lot of hard times, so I’m very hungry and you can see it when I fight. And if somebody comes and pushes me, then I’m gonna push back and it’s going to be a very, very good fight.”