Jack Catterall, Regis Prograis to square off Aug. 24 in Manchester
Junior welterweight contenders hope to parlay a win into title shot
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Jack Catterall and Regis Prograis will square off in a 12-round junior welterweight fight on Aug. 24 in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN, the promoter announced on Saturday.
The fight will take place at Manchester, England’s Co-op Live, which opened in May and will host a boxing event for the first time.
“This is a brilliant fight and I’m so happy that we are seeing the best 140-pound fighters face each other rather than just sitting around waiting for title shots,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said. “Jack Catterall is on a great run and Regis Prograis needs to make a statement in this fight, I think it will be a thriller. I’m also delighted to give this incredible new arena its first live boxing event and it’s going to be a huge show from top to bottom.”
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Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs), a southpaw from Chorley, England, which is only about a half hour from Manchester, is coming off the biggest win of his career. It was a clear unanimous decision in a nontitle fight against former undisputed champion Josh Taylor on May 25 in a rematch of Catterall’s hugely controversial split decision loss for the undisputed crown in 2022.
With a title opportunity not available to him next, Catterall is taking on Prograis, a former two-time 140-pound titleholder.
“I’ve waited around for big fights to happen before, sitting around waiting for title shots and it caused me a huge amount of inactivity,” Catterall said. “I’ll never do that again. I asked Eddie Hearn and (manager) Sam Jones for the best available fight for Aug. 24 and as soon as they mentioned Regis Prograis I said yes straight away. We were meant to fight a while back and it fell through; but now we have the opportunity to settle it in the ring on Aug. 24.
“I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and I’ll never do that again. Regis Prograis is a fantastic fighter and he’s coming off the back of a huge pay-per-view world title fight against Devin Haney. He’s a former two-time world champion, he’s been over here to the UK before, had a life and death with Josh Taylor, and I’m looking forward to sharing the ring with such a great fighter.”
Prograis (29-2, 24 KOs), 35, a southpaw from New Orleans, dropped a disputed majority decision to Taylor in a 2019 title unification fight in at The O2 in London, which ended Prograis WBA title reign.
In 2022, Prograis won the vacant WBC title via 11th-round knockout of Jose Zepeda and made one successful defense before running into Haney in December.
Haney had vacated the undisputed lightweight title and moved up to junior welterweight to challenge Prograis in December in San Francisco, where Haney was born.
Prograis was stunningly outclassed. Haney dropped Prograis in the third round and won a 120-107 shutout on all three scorecards. Prograis has not fought since but has the chance to regain some of his standing with a win against Catterall.
“This is a fight I’ve always wanted,” Prograis said. “We were supposed to fight a few years ago but it never materialized. Now is the perfect time. I view Jack as one of the best in the world at 140 pounds. It’s a great fight because Jack is eager to become a world champion and I’m looking to become a three-time world champion. On top of that, I’m excited to be coming back to the U.K.”
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I'll be watching but this has ugly shitty fight written all over it. I hope I'm wrong.
Catterall wins prograis at 35 has hit the wall