Regis Prograis-The Best Damn Junior Welterweight In The World...Period

By G. Leon

29/04/2019

Regis Prograis-The Best Damn Junior Welterweight In The World...Period

Prograis looking to unify 140 before moving up to welter

Greg Leon: Congrats on your dominant victory over Kiryl Relikh to capture the WBA world title. Can you give us some thoughts on your peformance? Regis Prograis: "Thank you. I thought it was a good performance. I went in there and had fun and got the stoppage just like I told everyone I would. I'm a world champion and that's the main thing right now." GL: You've been the best junior welterweight with a green belt since you got that strap, but do you now feel like a full fledged world champion after this fight since Ramirez is the WBC champion? RP: "Yeah, definitely. I've always considered myself the best and a lot of other people have too, but before they was saying I didn't have a full title and now I do so there's nothing people could say now. I think having the WBA belt raises my stock a litle bit more."
 
GL: You hit him with a body shot in the first round that made him turn around and walk away. Talk to us about that.
 
RP: (laughs) "I saw the opening. His body was big and I saw the opening and I took it. I'm the kind of fighter that when I see an opening I'm taking it. I didn't think it was going to be a punch that was going to be that effective, but when I hit him with it he turned around and walked."
 
GL: You continued to punish him to the body throughout the bout. Did you expect that to open up the offense to his head once you had him protecting his ribs?
 
RP: "He opened up a little bit in the first round and I caught him with that shot, but then after that he kept his elbow stuck to his body because he didn't want to get hit there anymore. It was hard for him to have offense because he was trying to play a lot of defense on his right side. He was keeping it covered up and I just kept boxing, boxing, boxing and waiting for the next opening."
 
GL: After the second round he hit you with a left hook a full second after the bell and it appeared to hurt you. Did it?
 
RP: "It did. It buzzed me for that one second and I've never been buzzed before, but that only lasted for one second. I've never been buzzed before so I never felt that feeling, but I was able to come right back in the next round and do my thing."
 
GL: Is this something that you learned from in terms of staying a little tighter after the bell rings?
 
RP: "Yeah I think so, protect yourself at all times and that ain't going to happen again."
 
GL: I talk to you all the time and I've never heard you drop so many F-Bombs in 25 interviews as you did during that post fight interview the other night. Where did that come from? Was it the emotion and adrenaline of the moment? 
 
RP: "Probably so, it was all the adrenaline on and I had all my people in my ear talking shit to me, so that's what that was."
 
GL: Are you hoping that the WBSS takes place in NOLA or somewhere in Louisiana?
 
RP: "Hopefully. I hope so. I would love that and we would sell the event out."
 
GL: Is the main reason you want Josh Taylor because you consider him to b the next best guy at junior welterweight?
 
RP: "Bascially. I consider him the next best guy and most other people consider him to be that too. For me it's either one. I'm getting the winner and I'm going to do what I've got to do anyway. But I would want to fight Josh Taylor more because he is highly regarded and it would be a really good fight between me and him."
 
GL: From five fights on the house to seven figures per bout, you're planning to remain hungry until you achieve your goal of what?
 
RP: "You know what? My goals keep changing. I always thought that once you be a world champion it's the top of the hill, but now I"m a world champion and I still feel like I'm at the bottom. I'm going to just keep working and my whole thing is, I want all the belts. I want to be undisputed at 140 and then go up to 147 and maybe finish my career up there. I don't know though, because my goals keep changing. When you shatter your goals you've got to find new ones. I think right now the sky is the limit for me, I know as far as right now, I want to be undisputed at 140."
 
GL: Do you see yourself doing what Crawford did, unifying the division and then moving up to 147 before defending them all?
 
RP: "I think I could see that, but the only thing is if I'll have the chance to do it. In the tournament I have the finals and then I'll have two belts. Making fights with the guys who have the other two belts falls into the things I cannot control. In a perfect world I would want to fight Ramirez or Hooker, or both of them, maybe they can fight each other and then I'll fight one of them. Time wise it may not happen like that, but I definitely want to get all four belts if I can. Granted, when I finish the tournament if they offer me a huge fight at 147 then I'm going to move up to 147, I'm not going to wait around for people. I'm definitely going to have the star power at 140 after this tournament so I'm not going to have to wait around for anybody because I'll be the boss."
 
GL: You entered this tournament as basically a mandatory challenger to Ramirez. Do you think that being a champion for potentially two other sanctioning bodies will make it harder to enforce the Ramirez fight?
 
RP: "I definitely think it could, but I think my people will do everything to make it happen but we can't force guys into the ring."
 
GL: Closing thoughts for the fans.
 
RP: "I just had a real good performance, so now it's just time to chill out with the family and get ready for this move to Los Angeles. I've been working towards becoming a world champion ever since I started boxing and now I am." 

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