Regis Prograis vs. Velasco in New Orleans



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Regis Prograis does not look for a video of his opponents and does not want to know much before fighting. Prograis, the WBC Super Lightweight Interim Champion, believes this allows him to make the adjustments he needs based on what's really going on in front of him and not what has happened in the past.

New Orleans native against the undefeated but largely unknown Argentine Juan Jose Velasco. It should have been a fight for the unification of the title with the new WBC champion, Jose Ramirez, but Top Rank, the promoter of Ramirez, did not want to participate in this fight.

He wanted Ramirez to win his first victory – in front of a friendly local crowd in Fresno, California, Ramirez built a bankable attraction in Fresno, thanks to his work and that of his manager, Rick Mirigian , tireless and always noisy who preaches the gospel of Ramirez to whoever will listen to Central California

Ramirez had to defend his belt last week against Danny O 'Connor, but O & # 39; Connor s & rsquo; Was dehydrated during his weight shot and collapsed and was ripped off the fight. So now, Ramirez will instead defend against Antonio Orozco in what should be a fun fight if that happens. The problem with this fight is that Orozco also has a missing weight story.

Prograis did not have such problems and would have made for an explosive and entertaining match with Ramirez. Top Rank, who gave the whistle because Ramirez is the biggest draw, did not want to risk seeing a potential star be knocked out on his first defense.

There is a need for boxing now, because promoters Over the years have hurt so much in sports, it does not have the brilliance of other sports. If they had spent the last few decades bringing together guys like Ramirez and Prograis, they could have done this fight without worrying about building it. The sport would have been healthier and the fighters would have done more things throughout.

Prograis will join the Super Lightweight World Boxing Super Series tournament when he defeats Velasco, and partly because of decisions like Top Rank "

" I am planning to go to the tournament [the WBSS] because that's the best fight against the best, "said Prograis. "In professional boxing, you can be a champion, but you do not have to fight with the first competitor.You could fight No. 20 or something and be OK.They are trying to milk the title as long as They can, it's all wrong with that now, people are not fighting who they are supposed to fight with. "

WBC super lightweight champion Regis Prograis defends belt in New Orleans this weekend. (Getty Images)

There are not many fighters like Prograis.There are not many who can fight like him, and there are not many who are as thoughtful, introspective, well read and accommodating as he is.

Prograis is 29 years old and should be a household name now, but despite everything strikes, a complete game and the kind of personality that draws people to him.

Plop him in a caps It was a staple on Wide World of Sports, fighting the biggest names and becoming a mainstream star for a long time.

Instead, the promoters of the champion in his division considered him too much a threat, and allowed him to go elsewhere despite the genre

Prograis is in many ways like his idol, Manny Pacquiao, who will challenge Lucas Matthysse on Sunday (Saturday in the US) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a version of the WBA welterweight title. Pacquiao-Matthysse's fight will be broadcast on the ESPN + broadcast service immediately after ESPN's broadcast of Prograis-Velasco.

Prograis will be scrambling to get to a computer or a phone to watch Pacquiao. He is a boxing historian and has a lot of admiration for Pacquiao, and he still hopes to be able to fight.

"I really mean it," said Prograis when asked when he thought Pacquiao could be in his future. . "I really think that a me-and-Pacquiao fight could be a potential match someday.This could even be after that.You never know.You never know [how] that things will go.I think that I could get a Pacquiao fight or even a Lomachenko fight, maybe even after that.This depends on what the fans think and what the promoters want to do. "

Prograis said that it's n & # 39; 39; does not study future opponents, but he looks carefully at the best in the history of boxing. When asked who he put on Mount Rushmore from boxing, he gave five names – Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Armstrong Henry, Joe Louis and Floyd Mayweather – because he could not stop at four o'clock.

He said that he is paid special attention to Pacquiao's career and has a theory for which Pacquiao went nearly nine years without knockout. He said that he has watched all of Pacquiao's fights since Pacquiao was knocked out in a flyweight bout in 1999.

He said, "Pacquiao is like a God in my eyes," but added quickly, "He's not the fighter he's"

"It's a combination of things, but he's getting older and Father Time will always catch up with you," said Mr. Prograis. . "You may have to answer Father Time. He did a lot of things [outside the ring] and after the knockout of [Juan Manuel] Marquez, when Marquez really asleep, I think it also took a lot of weight.

"His killer instinct is not there anymore and he is involved with too many things.It is Pacquiao, but at the same time, it is father's time. Pacquiao in his day was just destroying people. "

This is what Prograis has done so far in his young professional career. If he went to about where Pacquiao was located, it would be a remarkable race

He is one of the few to have the boxing skills and the hitting power that could do what Pacquiao did.

A chance to compare the two men as they occur in separate fights. Chances are good that at this point in the careers, it will be a favorable comparison for Prograis.

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