Two-time super-lightweight champion Regis Prograis (29-2) is set to return to action in two months’ time as he travels to the United Kingdom to take on Manchester’s Jack Catterall (29-1), five years after Prograis claimed he fought never fight on British shores again. Now, Prograis has revealed why he has u-turned on that statement, although it seems as though he had little choice.
‘Rougarou’ claimed the WBA super-lightweight crown when he knocked out Kiryl Relikh in the sixth-round of their World Boxing Super Series semi-final but his reign did not last long. Just six months later, the American travelled to the O2 Arena to face IBF champion Josh Taylor in the final of the WBSS but found himself on the wrong side of an extremely tight majority-decision after an instant classic affair.
Despite being gracious in defeat after the bell in his post-fight interview, Prograis had recently declared that he would refuse to fight in the United Kingdom again, feeling as though he will never get a fair shake on the judges’ scorecards as the away fighter.
“I wouldn’t come and fight in the U.K. again, I just wouldn’t do it. Unless they offered me a ton of money, but if they said ‘come and fight in the U.K. again’, I won’t do it. I just feel like I won’t do it again.”
Yet, in spite of those comments, Prograis is gearing up for a clash with Catterall in the hopes of re-establishing himself as a threat to the super-lightweight world titles. In an interview with Boxing Social, the Louisiana-born southpaw admitted that Matchroom made him take the fight and gave him no other options.
“They made me [come over to the U.K.], they made me. They said ‘take this, or nothing, that is it’. For me, when my back is against the wall, that is when I really turn up on everybody. So, I will tell you the truth, they made me, [they said], ‘you can do this or nothing else’, [so I said] ‘alright, watch this’. That is my whole thought process.
“My back is against the wall right now, with whoever it is. I feel the pressure right now, and that is good. My back has been against the wall before and when my back is against the wall, that is when I feel like I am the most dangerous.
“I understand the business side of things, I understand that it will be a bigger fight in the U.K. than it would be here [in the U.S.A] but yeah, that’s what it is. They said ‘you have this, or nothing else, what are you going to do?’.”
Catterall-Prograis will be the first boxing event to take place at the newly-opened Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester and will now take place on October 28th after the original date of August 24th was pushed back because of an injury to Catterall.
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