Jack Catterall (30-1, 13 KOs) defeated former WBA and WBC 140-lb champion Regis Prograis (29-3, 24 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight that had almost no action on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
Catterall knocked down Prograis twice with their left hand in round nine. Other than that one big round, it was a lot of movement from Catterall, who fought a lot like Shakur Stevenson with his retreating around the ring all night, trying not to get hit. There were boos early on in the fight due to neither fighter pressing the action.
Prograis scored a fifth-round knockdown with a jab that caused Catterall to slip.
The scores were: 117-108, 116-109 and 116-109
Undercard results
– In a competitive rematch, light welterweight Jimmy Flint (15-2-2, 3 KOs) beat Campbell Hatton (14-2, 5 KOs) by an action-packed ten-round unanimous decision. Flint landed the cleaner, harder punches against the 23-year-old Hatton to win by 97-94, 96-94, and 96-95.
Hatton had his moments early on, connecting with some nice shots to the head and body of Flint. However, Hatton faded by the sixth round, losing much of the power he had on his punches, and dominated down the stretch by Flint.
Hatton fought well in brief spurts in rounds seven through nine, but he wasn’t able to sustain anything. He tried to fight Flint on the inside, but he wasn’t effective. Surprisingly, it was the taller Flint who landed the harder shots on the inside, catching Hatton with uppercuts.
Hatton’s 23-year-old loss to Flint was his second in a row and put his career in doubt. He will have to decide whether he wants to continue fighting because he had hoped to improve his game to avenge his 10-round decision loss to Flint last March. However, Hatton did look better tonight, but not enough for him to win.
– Two-time Olympian Pat McCormack (6-0, 4 KOs) defeated Williams Herrera (16-4, 7 KOs) by a ten-round unanimous decision in a welterweight contest. The judges’ scores were 100-90, 100-90, and 100-90.
The 29-year-old McCormack was coming off a long layoff and looked impressive early, landing precise shots at will against the smaller, weaker Argentinian Herrera.
There was almost nothing comparing back from Herrera through the first six rounds, and it was surprising that his corner didn’t pull him out because he was getting hit at will.
In the seventh round, McCormack began showing signs of fatigue and started getting hit a lot by Herrera. Seeing that McCormack was beginning to wilt, Herrera was like a shark, going after the tired and weak McCormack and hitting him with nice head and body shots that put the Brit on the run.
McCormack was cut over his left eye in round nine from an accidental clash of heads. The blood got worse as Herrera targeted the area and had the cut bleeding everywhere.
McCormack looked exhausted and in distress in rounds nine and ten from the sudden surge of pressure from Herrera. In the last ten seconds, Herrera unloaded with a storm of shots that made McCormack look uncomfortable.
The performance by McCormack showed that he won’t make a dent in the pro level against world-level fighters. He’ll have to be matched at the British level to keep him from losing. He’s not young at 29, so there’s no chance of him improving. He is what he is. An old welterweight prospect who doesn’t have much upside.
