Regis Prograis dismisses notion that his best days are behind him

Knowing the history of how dishonest aging fighters can be with themselves, it’s only natural to wonder what becomes of former two-time 140-pound world champion Regis Prograis as he stares down an overseas fight against a younger, higher-ranked opponent.

Is Saturday’s match against England’s Jack Catterall in Manchester a final reckoning for Prograis? Or is it the perfect opportunity for the 35-year-old to regenerate himself following last year’s beyond-sluggish title-fight loss to Devin Haney?

This is why the crowd will arrive at Co-op Live Arena, why the viewing public will watch on DAZN and why Prograis, 29-2 (24 KOs), rejected the premise that the downhill portion of his career has arrived.

“Yes, you need to always ask yourself, ‘Can I still do this?’ I know I can. (The decline of age) is not a factor at all,” Prograis told BoxingScene/ProBox TV Monday.

“I can still do all the work. I’m still fast. My reflexes are still strong. I just want to go out there and show people I still have it. I feel better than when I was 27. I still can take punches. My body is still durable. I have my speed, I have everything.

“We can talk all day. I just want to show people. Saturday night for me is all about showing I can erase any doubts in anyone’s mind, telling them, ‘Don’t ever doubt me again.’”

If Prograis’ self-defensive words seemed overdone, perhaps that’s because his last bout was so undercooked.

He set a CompuBox record in the worst way by landing only 36 punches in 12 rounds as Devin Haney defended his WBC 140-pound belt December 9 by scoring a third-round knockdown en route to a clean sweep (120-107) on all three judges’ scorecards in Haney’s hometown of San Francisco.

That bout seems forever ago given all that happened in Haney’s scandal-ridden no-contest bout in April against Ryan Garcia.

And Prograis similarly feels he’s a new man since adding a new trainer to his team, Kay Koroma, after feeling he overtrained under Bobby Benton and Julian Chua during the Haney camp.

“With the Haney fight, it was a mind thing,” Prograis said. “I had a lot of distractions going on inside the camp. I trained too long. Everything that could’ve gone bad went bad.

“It was a big mental warfare thing, too, being that we did all the talking. That was something I took on. I was enjoying talking all that (stuff) to (Haney’s father-manager-trainer) Bill (Haney) instead of thinking about the fight. My coach was doing the same thing and they kind of got into our heads about talking. Mentally, I was already beaten.

“And, yes, (Haney) has a good style, but I think Jack Catterall’s style is made for me.”

Catterall, 31, is coming off his most important victory yet, a May 25 unanimous-decision triumph over former undisputed 140-pound champion Josh Taylor two years after many believe Catterall, 29-1 (13 KOs), took Taylor’s belts in a disputed split-decision triumph for the Scot who had previously defeated Prograis by majority decision in an October 2019 unification bout at the O2 Arena.

Now, Prograis returns overseas and again embraces this “me-against-the-world” mindset in a bout that occurs 25 miles from Catterall’s hometown of Chorley.

“I do have doubts about (Catterall’s) resume because he’s not on my level. We have two common opponents: Josh Taylor and Tyrone McKenna, who I stopped in six rounds and he went the distance with, with Tyrone pushing him,” Prograis said. “(Taylor’s) his best win. If you take Josh Taylor off my resume, I’m still a two-time champion. If you take him off his, where does (Catterall) go?

“There’s nothing else, and there is levels. I want to show people my skills are levels above his … not just a few. He’ll see.”

By being ranked No. 2 by the WBC and WBO, Catterall is slotted to step in as a soon-to-be challenger to the winner of the pending WBC title bout between Alberto Puello and Sandor Martin, and to WBO champion Teofimo Lopez, especially if top-ranked Arnold Barboza Jr. loses next month to former champion Jose Ramirez in Saudi Arabia.

Prograis, ranked No. 7 by three of the sanctioning bodies, sees a path back to a title fight by defeating Catterall.

“That’s a real good thing. This is probably the biggest fight you can make at 140 outside of having the belts on the line,” he said. “I want to be a champion again so I know it’s going to come (toward me) even quicker. When I lost my belt to Josh Taylor, it took me three years to win a championship again. It won’t take me another three years. I just want to go out there and perform and be me and have fun. Every day of sparring was a good day – 95 per cent – for me. Before every round, my coach would tell me, ‘Go have fun.’ If I do that, I’ll show my level. I want to show my skills. Obviously, I’m a big puncher. I want to show myself being relaxed, going out there and having fun.”

He either executes that plan or Prograis risks sinking into an abyss of consecutive defeats, knowing the desk calendar of his career is seeing valuable days fly away – for good.

“I lost the belt to Josh Taylor, got it back against a killer by knocking out Jose Zepeda, a guy who’d never been stopped,” Prograis reminded.

“Don’t doubt me. You cannot doubt me. I’m still the man at 140. I’m still him.”