Regis Prograis reveals Jack Catterall’s manager predicted ‘flattening’ win for Prograis

Regis Prograis taunted Jack Catterall with a message from Catterall’s manager telling Prograis he would “flatten” him if they fought.

Catterall and Prograis fight on Saturday evening at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, near Catterall’s hometown of Chorley.

Where the 31-year-old Catterall aims to secure a world-title fight, having impressively defeated his long-term rival Josh Taylor earlier in 2025, Prograis, 35, is seeking to revive his career following his convincing defeat in December 2023 by Devin Haney.

Catterall’s outspoken manager Sam Jones wasn’t working with him when he sent the relevant voice note to Prograis, but at Thursday’s final press conference former junior-welterweight champion played it for all to hear.

“I like Jack, by the way,” Jones could be heard saying. “I know him very well. But I do think you flatten him. You understand what I mean? Because you’re a different guy to Josh Taylor. Jack wants to fight you, but I think [inaudible].”

“I know when that was,” Jones responded. “I know when that was. Regis, I’ve got some messages of you, so just think very carefully before you play that next one. … This is before I knew Jack. This is before I knew Jack. I’d never met Jack before. I had never met Jack. I had never met Jack. I’ve only known him two years. Regis, I’ve got some messages of you, and they’ll be posted later.”

“Go ahead, do it,” responded the straight-talking Prograis. “That’s fine.”

Jones insisted that that message had been sent before he knew Catterall – not that that necessarily ought to have affected his ability to judge him as a fighter.

“We spoke after the last fight and you [Eddie Hearn] said I could get a world title shot in 2025,” Catterall said. “I’ve been in that position before; I’ve been waiting on something that might not happen. My instruction to Sam Jones and Matchroom was, ‘I want to fight the best’. Regis was the name proposed, and we jumped at it.”

“This is the fight I wanted,” said Prograis. “Me and Jack were supposed to fight a long time ago, but it didn’t happen for reasons; I feel like they didn’t want to fight. I think you [Hearn] backed them into a corner. This is a big fight, the best fight you can make at 140 without the belts. 

“Right now, I’m feeling super calm, super confident, about everything. I don’t feel like I’m away from home, to be honest. I expected the crowd to be more hostile, I expected people to be talking shit to me, but nobody is saying nothing.”

They share a familiar opponent in Taylor. Catterall has recorded a win and a controversial loss against the Scot; Prograis lost narrowly to Taylor back in 2019. If Catterall had been awarded the victory in his first fight with Taylor that many believed he deserved, he would have been crowned world champion. Prograis has reigned as champion twice.

“Saturday night I’ll pack my bag and we will see what happens, but I just know there’s levels to this game,” Prograis said. “We’ve got some similar opponents but if you take Josh Taylor off his resume what does he have? Nothing. You take Josh Taylor off my resume I’m still a two-time world champion. There’s levels to this game and I’m going to go out there and show skills pay the bills.”

“Yeah, he’s probably [got the better resume] – he’s fought for world titles, won world titles,” Catterall responded. “I’ve yet to do that, but I’m willing to do that, and I will prove that on Saturday. Of course, I’m expecting Regis to come with everything he’s said in the build-up. We’ve seen his Boxrec; we’ve seen his fights. He’s a strong fighter – he’ll come looking for [the knockout] – but I’m the better boxer on Saturday.

The promoter of both fighters, Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, repeated that a title shot could be next for the winner.

“For me this is one of the best fights in the division – two of the very best at 140lbs,” he said. “A must-win fight for both. I’ve made it clear – just in a couple of weeks [on December 7] we have Liam Paro fighting Richard Hitchins. I’d love the winner of this fight to fight the winner of that fight for the [IBF] world championship.”