“I still love being a fighter,” Regis Prograis says as, at the age of 35, the two-time former world champion prepares for another testing battle in Manchester on Saturday night. The American super-lightweight, having excelled in the division for eight years, will fight Jack Catterall, who has lost only once, and controversially, in 30 bouts.
Prograis has endured two defeats in 31 contests and his resolve and ambition will be examined again following a comprehensive loss in his most recent contest against Devin Haney. That humbling defeat cost him his WBC world title. But Prograis is typically upbeat while finding fresh purpose in this hard old business.
He stresses his love of boxing “is the reason why I’m still doing this. I really want to be a world champion again for the third time. That’s something I crave. I did it twice already but three is special. Three is legendary because Muhammad Ali was a three-time champion”.
The winner between Catterall and Prograis will almost certainly have earned himself another shot at a world title but, for once, the high stakes have not been accompanied by any needle or routine trash-talking. “Jack is super-friendly,” Prograis says in his laconic New Orleans drawl. “Really, really friendly. But I know we still have to fight.
“At the first face-off it looked like we were talking trash but he was just asking me about my flight. I was smiling and saying: ‘Yeah, my flight was cool.’ He then asked me if I was enjoying Manchester. I was super-happy because I’m back on the big stage and I want to go out there and show my skills.”
Last December, against Haney in San Francisco, the atmosphere was fraught and frenetic. During fight week a running verbal battle with the big-talking Bill Haney, Devin’s father, often seemed to consume Prograis and he admits that he became distracted. “Oh, for sure. 100%. I knew we wanted to build the fight but they definitely got in my head.
“A lot of people don’t like Bill Haney. Sometimes he can be a clown but he’s clever at the same time. It’s interesting because boxing is much more mental than physical. We all train hard but your mentality makes the difference.
“Physically I was good but, before the fight, it was a mess. It was like a big old party for everybody around me, like a celebration before the fight. I had my friends in my room, people filming, girls doing their hair. There was way too much going on and I didn’t like it.
“Manchester is so much better. When I’m not working in the gym, I’m just staying in my hotel room, reading and watching TV. So, honestly, I’d rather fight away from home now. This is almost his home town [Catterall is from Chorley] and it’s definitely his home country. But there’s no pressure on me. I’m just chilling. Nobody’s calling my phone. I have nothing going on.
“I’m getting back to my roots. When I was coming up through the ranks I would sit in my room all day before a fight. Last time I was in London [when he lost a narrow points decision in a compelling fight against Josh Taylor in October 2019] we did something every day. It was non-stop, being in the streets all the time, doing a bunch of media. It was too much and I learned from that. This time I work out in the morning and at night time but otherwise I’m here [he gestures to his hotel room.]”
Prograis smiles when I ask if he feels bored. “I’m used to boredom. But they have a movie theatre three minutes’ walk from here and on Sunday I saw The Apprentice, the biopic about Donald Trump. It’s a terrible movie but it passed the time.”
The rest of that time is often occupied by thoughts of Catterall and, for all their friendliness, Prograis is almost dismissive of his opponent’s credentials. In February 2022, in his finest performance, Catterall was robbed of his rightful victory against Taylor. He knocked down the feisty Scot and dominated the fight but two of the three judges, somehow, gave the decision to Taylor. Catterall won the rematch this May but it was a much more difficult bout for him.
Prograis shrugs when I ask if he was impressed by Catterall. “Not really. I feel he won the first fight – but the second was way closer. They kind of owed him the decision. But the Josh Taylor he fought was nothing like the guy I fought in 2019. I still thought I beat Taylor and if we have a rematch I’d probably stop him.
“So I don’t know how hard this is going to be on Saturday night. Me and Taylor, we fought it out for 12 rounds. Jack doesn’t have as much pushback as Taylor. He’s more of a boxer but Jack is not so slick and, if I land, I’m going to hurt him. Jack gets hit a lot and I know he’s never dealt with nobody like me. And, listen, besides Taylor, there’s nothing else on his résumé. You take Taylor off my résumé, I’m still a two-time world champion. It’s all about levels in this game and I’m levels above.”
Prograis is a voracious reader of boxing books and he understands the dangers of the ring more than most fighters. But he sounds serene as he promises that “if I do what I did in sparring, everything will be perfect. My coach Bobby Benton is real calm and he tells me to ‘Go have fun’.
“When I first heard that, it did something different to my brain. He was telling me to just enjoy myself. I realise that this is how we thought as kids. When I started out boxing at 16, 17, I did it to have fun. But then you grow up, you start fighting and, as you get older, you move up to a higher level. It stops becoming that much fun. You start having pressure.”
Prograis shrugs. He looks calm and relaxed as if, after all these years of struggle and lessons in the ring, he really has found what he loves most about boxing.
“You can’t call this a game,” he says, “but to me it’s fun. This is what I do, and this is what I like to do.
“So I have to just go out there, enjoy myself, have fun and do what I did in the gym. If I do all that, I should have no problems on Saturday night.”
