The great thing about exhaustion and desperation is their ability to rob a boxer’s capacity to think, concentrate, and keep away from danger. Sometimes in a fight involving two thinkers, particularly southpaws, the inevitability of exhaustion and desperation is a welcome and often vital way of turning a stalemate into an actual fight.
This proved the case again this evening (October 26) in a super lightweight fight between Jack Catterall and Regis Prograis in Manchester. For six rounds a fight of high quality but low output, the two fighters eventually came to life in the bout’s second half, by which point both were desperate to assert dominance and both were naturally starting to get tired. This dynamic alone produced a few more punches, a few more mistakes, and ultimately two ninth-round knockdowns which shifted the momentum in Catterall’s favour and made Prograis an even more desperate man in the final three rounds.
Until then, the pair had been difficult to separate. Counterpunchers by trade, both were waiting for an opportunity to land and both were at times waiting too long, especially in the early going. By round nine, in fact, the round in which Catterall turned the fight on its head, the punch stats made for quite telling reading, with Catterall landing just 44 punches through eight rounds and Prograis landing 48.
In terms of the ones landing, most were left hands from the southpaw stance. Catterall’s tended to be straighter, and typically thrown following a jab, while Prograis had more of a propensity to loop his and ensure the punch had a somewhat wilder trajectory. Regardless, both shots were clever and effective when thrown. In round three, for example, Catterall scored with the first big punch of the night when he nailed Prograis as the American rolled forward without thinking. This was then matched by a good overhand left by Prograis in the next round, the fourth, which acted as the cue for him to be more aggressive and push Catterall back. He was, at this point, the looser of the two, and seemingly the more relaxed. He would feint a lot before punching and appeared, on the face of it, to be gaining some kind of foothold in the contest.
This feeling was then solidified in the fifth round when Prograos pushed a hard jab in the direction of Catterall’s neck and Catterall, upon taking it, touched the canvas with his glove. His leg, it’s true, had buckled beneath him, but at no stage did Catterall ever look hurt by the punch or anything other than frustrated. Nevertheless, slip or stumble, the knockdown was counted and Prograis would build on this success in the sixth round, responding to an aggressive Catterall burst in the final 30 seconds by catching him clean with a counter right hook.
Before that round, Jamie Moore, Catterall’s coach, had implored his man to gain Prograis’ respect and not allow him to march forward unopposed and this advice would set the foundation for what was to come. In round seven, both men picked up a cut following a head clash (Catterall’s high on his head; Prograis’ over his right eye), and then in the eighth Catterall displayed far greater composure to land his left hand on more one occasion. Less inclined now to skitter, or pull away from Prograis’ attacks, Catterall was instead standing his ground and digging in, doing precisely as he had been told in the corner.
By round nine, with the output of both a little on the miserly side, Catterall suddenly came to life. He realised, perhaps, that he could do more than just think his way through this fight and that once levels of exhaustion and desperation created better openings, there would be an opportunity for him to make both a dent in Prograis and a statement via the manner of victory. To beat Prograis was one thing, but to do so in style, and either hurt, drop, or stop him, represented clear progression for Catterall; someone who has now and again faced criticism for winning in a fashion less satisfying for the audience than it is for him.
The ninth, for Catterall, was him at his very best, for it demonstrated both his ability to think his way through a fight and then explode when an opening presents itself. Starting early with a left hand, Catterall followed this initial success with another, much bigger, left hand seconds later, the impact of which had Prograis sprawled on the canvas for the first time in the fight.
As good a shot as Catterall has ever thrown, it was timed to perfection, this left hand, and only Prograis’ inherent toughness allowed him to take the punch and get up from it. When he did, his recovery powers then helped him to weather the subsequent onslaught, yet still he would touch down again, this time on the bell, when cracked again by another well-placed Catterall left hand.
With the ninth round now scored 10-7 in Catterall’s favour, the level of desperation Prograis would have to exhibit in the next three would only enhance Catterall’s hopes of finishing him; or, at the very least, sweeping the remaining rounds. “He can’t work it out now because he’s tired,” said Jamie Moore before the final round, and so it proved, with Prograis even slipping at one point and twisting his ankle. He then later in the round, when needing something big, swung so wildly with a punch that he ended up falling over, after which he retreated into a corner of his own volition and beckoned Catterall to join him.
It was a sign, if ever one was needed, that Jack Catterall had beaten Regis Prograis at his own game. Clearly, having lost this battle, Prograis was now trying to think up other games, ones triggered by exhaustion and desperation, and knew deep down that his questions had been asked and that Catterall, in outthinking and outfighting him, had come up with all the required answers.
The judges saw it this way, too, delivering the Brit a unanimous decision by overgenerous scores of 117-108 and 116-109 (twice) after 12 completed rounds. “I’m pleased,” said Catterall, 30-1 (13), in the ring. “It was a big occasion for me. I was fighting a tremendous fighter in Regis and I knew I had to be on my game.
“We had a cagey couple of rounds and I felt Regis’ power; obviously he’s a strong fighter. Jamie (Moore) said, ‘Look we’re starting to slip behind now.’ I knew I couldn’t take too many gambles, but I came back into it and scored the two knockdowns.”
As easy as it is to attribute a fight breaking out to exhaustion and desperation, credit must go to Jack Catterall as well. He, after all, was every bit as exhausted and desperate as Regis Prograis at times during tonight’s fight, yet, unlike Prograis, he was the one able to produce a moment of quality when it really mattered. Not only that, the prospect of a thinking man’s fighter like Catterall now adding one-punch power to his game, or at least showing the intent to land the shots he did in round nine, makes him a man to be taken seriously at the top of the 140-pound division. No longer, it seems, will he be content to wait.
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