Notebook: Catterall injury forces Prograis fight to be postponed
Lampley weighs in on Crawford-Madrimov; full PPV lineup; false Gervonta Davis-Shakur Stevenson report; Quick hits; Show and tell
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The junior welterweight fight between top contender Jack Catterall and former titleholder Regis Prograis was postponed on Tuesday.
Catterall suffered a rib injury in training and Matchroom Boxing hopes to reschedule the fight for a date in October, sources involved in the event told Fight Freaks Unite.
The 12-round bout was set to headline an Aug. 24 card on DAZN at Manchester, England’s Co-op Live, which opened in May and was to host its first boxing event.
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Prograis, who had been training in Las Vegas, left on Tuesday to return home to Houston.
“I have truly invested in myself for this training camp,” Prograis told Fight Freaks Unite. “I was working my ass off in Las Vegas, setting up camp, paying for everything, doing everything I was supposed to do. Everyday I was busting my ass and watching Jack’s fights before I went to sleep. And now this happens. It’s very upsetting.”
ESPN first reported the postponement.
Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs), 31, of 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 agreed to face fellow southpaw Prograis, a former two-time 140-pound titleholder.
“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,” Catterall said when the fight was initially announced in June. “He’s a former two-time world champion, he’s been over here to the U.K. 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, 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 by Haney, who knocked him down in the third round and won a 120-107 shutout on all three scorecards. Prograis has not fought since but can regain some of his standing with a win against Catterall.
“This is a fight I’ve always wanted,” Prograis said when it was announced. ”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.”
Lampley on Crawford-Madrimov
Jim Lampley, the legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster, who called fights on HBO for decades, is now working with PPV.com and will co-host a chat during its stream of the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov event on Saturday (DAZN PPV, PPV.com, ESPN+ PPV, Prime Video PPV, 6 p.m. ET, $79.99) at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
So, what does Lampley, in Southern California, for a fight for the first time since calling HBO’s farewell card in Carson, on Dec. 8, 2018, think about Crawford’s move up to junior middleweight to challenge WBA titlist Madrimov?
“Whenever boxing’s consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter takes the risk of moving up in weight, mainstream fans see drama,” Lampley said. “Even if the opponent lacks big-time identity, the extra pounds compute to mystery. That is the heart of the uncertainty in Terence Crawford’s adventure versus Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov. Do Crawford’s lengthy unbeaten record and last year’s rampant knockout destruction of perceived elite opponent Errol Spence combine to assure us that a move from 147 to 154 pounds is safe for the unbeaten star? Or will he become just the latest in a long line of stars to follow the allure of money and status into the path of punches that affect him in ways beyond what he expects?
“And isn’t it inescapable, given Madrimov’s relative anonymity, that he is being set up as a dress rehearsal for a potential mega-money showdown against Canelo Alvarez, who exceeds even Crawford as the sport’s biggest dollar-for-dollar attraction? There are 14 more pounds of uncertainty from Madrimov’s 154-pound niche to Canelo’s 168, but pundits are noting that Madrimov is a disciple and in some ways a tintype of Gennadiy Golovkin, the puncher against whom Alvarez solidified his iron-chinned reputation. A win over Madrimov would be a valuable credential in Terence Crawford’s application for a showdown with Canelo. And that is what will most be at stake.”
Crawford vs. Madrimov PPV lineup
Junior middleweights: Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) vs. Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), for Madrimov’s WBA and vacant WBO interim junior middleweight title
Junior welterweights: Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) vs. Jose Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs), for Cruz’s WBA junior welterweight title
Heavyweights: Andy Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) vs. Jarrell Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs), 12 rounds
Heavyweights: Jared Anderson (17-0, 15 KOs) vs. Martin Bakole (20-1, 15 KOs), 10 rounds
Light heavyweights: David Morrell (10-0, 9 KOs) vs. “Hot Rod” Radivoje Kalajdzic (29-2, 21 KOs), for vacant WBA “regular” light heavyweight title
Lightweights: Andy Cruz (3-0, 1 KO) vs. Antonio Moran (30-6-1, 21 KOs), 10 rounds
Quick hits
In a Tuesday social media post, iFL TV reported that a lightweight unification fight between WBA titlist Gervonta Davis and WBC titleholder Shakur Stevenson was “set for Nov. 23,” though it did not even attribute the report to an unnamed source. However, four sources, who would be directly involved in such a fight if it was happening, told Fight Freaks Unite the report was false. When asked if the report was true, one of the sources said, “Not at all.” That doesn’t mean the fight won’t happen because both are looking for a significant fall fight. Davis lost a chance to unify with Vasiliy Lomachenko when their talks for a November bout ended last week when Lomachenko informed his team he would sit out the rest of the year. Stevenson, a promotional and broadcast free agent, is also looking for a big fight and has been ordered by the WBC to make his mandatory against William Zepeda.
Weights from Los Angeles for Matchroom Boxing’s free mini card on Wednesday on DAZN on the Santa Monica pier following the public workouts for the fights on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov card: Marc Castro 130 pounds, George Acosta 129; Shakhram Giyasov 149.4, Miguel Parra 149; Nathan Lugo 168.8, Ray Corona 167.8.
The Team Combat League will hold its second season Megabrawl Finals on Thursday (DAZN, 6 p.m. ET) at the Commerce Casino & Hotel in Commerce, California. The Miami Stealth squad squares off with the Philly Smoke in the team-oriented boxing competition in which fighters in a series of weight classes box one round each over 24 three-minute rounds with each round scored and the team with the most points after 24 rounds wins.
Show and tell
After Mike Tyson got beaten down and knocked out by then-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in the richest fight in history to that point, Tyson still was deeply in debt and needed money. So, of course, he would fight on. He returned eight months later for a 49-second knockout of Clifford Etienne in what would be his final KO and final win. A 17-month layoff followed before Tyson fought again. Trained by Freddie Roach for the bout, Tyson was matched with unheralded Brit Danny Williams in a Showtime PPV main event. They met at a packed Freedom Hall — the same venue where Muhammad Ali turned pro — in Louisville, Kentucky. It did not go well for Tyson, who was 38 and nearly 15 years removed from his loss to Buster Douglas.
Tyson had a lot riding on what was supposed to be an easy win. He was $38 million debut but had a deal worth at least $80 million waiting for him from Top Rank and would likely have left Showtime and returned to HBO. Tyson had a strong first round, but injured his left knee in the round. Then Williams took Tyson apart before unleashing a series of unanswered punches, including a mammoth right hand near the end of the fourth round that sent Tyson reeling into the ropes and down to the mat as blood streaked down his face from a cut near his right eye. Tyson didn't appear interested in continuing and was counted out at 2 minutes, 51 seconds in a big upset that propelled Williams into a world title shot against Vitali Klitschko in his next bout. Tyson-Williams, which I covered at ringside for USA Today, took place on July 30, 2004 — 20 years ago on Tuesday in what was Tyson’s second-to-last fight (until agreeing to end his retirement to fight Jake Paul on Nov. 15). Here is a site poster in my collection.
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Photos: Catterall-Prograis, Crawford-Madrimov and Castro-Acosta: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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