Redis Prograis suffered a dislocated ankle when he slipped on the canvas in the 11th round of his loss to Jack Catterall on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed the injury, and Prograis (29-3, 24 KOs) confirmed that he was injured when he fell in the 11th round after throwing and missing a wild right hand that was meant to be a Hail Mary fight-saving Punch.
What Kept Prograis From Winning
– No ability to pressure
– Combination punching
– Body attack
– Not equipped to cut off the ring
– Strong chin
Considering that Prograis was fighting with only one leg from the 11th round, he did an admirable job in a 12-round unanimous decision loss to Catterall, 31, in his home country. The judges scored 117-108, 116-109 and 116-109.
Prograis was down twice in round nine after getting clipped with left hands. Catterall was on the canvas in round five from a jab that caused him to trip.
Prograis would have won the fight if he had the right tools but lacked the technical skills. It was a match that he should have been able to win.
For a fighter who has been in the game for 12 years and won two world titles, it’s shocking that Prograis never learned to apply pressure, attack the body, or cut off the ring.
A fighter like William Zepeda from the lightweight division would have been a nightmare for Catterall tonight because of all the above areas that Prograis lacked in his game, which he’s strong at.
Catterall would have been forced to fight, would have been pressured nonstop, and attacked to the body. If you were to design a fighter in a laboratory to defeat Catterall, Zepeda would be the creation and promoter Eddie Hearn would be miserable afterward.
“Maybe 12 rounds is too much for me now,” said Regus Prograis to DAZN Boxing when interviewed after his loss to Catterall on Saturday night. “I started fading in the later rounds. I hurt my knee. I hurt my ankle. It’s because it gets too long, I think. For now, I’m going to do something else and let the young guys take over.”
“The first three rounds or four rounds,” said Eddie Hearn to the Stomping Grounds about how Catterall started slow. “You’re not making two southpaws against each other. You’re making two top-five fighters against each other, and sometimes, when there’s so much on the line, the first three rounds are going to be a bit cagey.
“It was the fifth round was the knockdown and it changed the fight. All of a sudden, I thought Jack was probably behind after the fifth or sixth round. So, I had to go from there and be more aggressive. When he was more aggressive, he hurt Regis,” said Hearn.
The punch that initially hurt Prograis in round nine came when he was being attacked, and he landed it out of self-defense. It wasn’t a case of Catterall being aggressive. He was never aggressive in the fight in the traditional sense. Even after Catterall dropped Prograis twice in round nine, he threw almost no punches in rounds 10, 11, and 12. Catterall was playing it safe, afraid to let his hands go for fear of being clipped.
“By the way, Regis Prograis is a proper fighter. It was a great speech. He turned his ankle over completely in the 11th round. He went through the 12th round. Yeah, because he dislocated his ankle. It was hanging off. He couldn’t even stand up on it, but he never stopped trying to win the fight. Massive respect to him,” said Hearn.
Let’s get this straight: The injured ankle wasn’t the reason Prograis lost tonight to Catterall. He lost because he didn’t know how to pressure, cut off the ring, throw body punches, or handle the single potshots Catterall was hitting him with. Prograis was doomed to lose without a good chin because he couldn’t have won with his poor punch resistance.
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