Regis Prograis was knocked down and wobbled over the course of his fight with Devin Haney – a man he had previously taunted as being unable to crack an egg.
Haney’s power and chin were components that made the narrative of the fight so interesting. With just 15 stoppages from 30 wins and moving up in weight, many felt his only path to victory was movement and point-scoring.
Whilst those factors were high-level, the 25-year-old also sat down on his punches with his new 140lbs frame and managed drop the tough Prograis. He would win a wide unanimous decision on the cards.
At the post-fight press conference, Prograis said Haney had ‘sneaky’ power.
“I was just on the canvas and was like ‘what happened?’ He doesn’t have power to where it’ll hurt you, but it’s the quick power. I was like, all right his dude does have it. You can’t just run in with him.
“He’s definitely better than I thought he was … He has sneaky power for sure. He doesn’t have the concussive power to knock you out just like that, but he does have sneaky power to where he can run you into it.”
Prograis also praised Haney’s speed, which left him playing catch up through most of the twelve rounds.
The New Orleans native accepted the defeat impressively, making no excuses and saying he would now go back to the drawing board.
“Man, I’m not gonna lie, I told all my people in the dressing room, they’re crying, I’m like ‘bro, pick your head up.’ It’s a fight, you gonna win, you gonna lose.
For this fight, I trained my ass off. I trained for four months and it wasn’t good enough – that’s gonna happen in life. You can train, you can do everything – it might not be good enough. But I’m gonna go back to the drawing board and get better. That’s what I do.”
Haney now has a mandatory challenger in Sandor Martin, but will undoubtedly also push for a unification against fellow super-lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez or a voluntary defence against the popular Ryan Garcia.