Jack Catterall (30-1, 13 KOs) beat Regis Prograis (29-3, 24 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight that was mostly a tactical contest on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
In the ninth, Catterall scored a pair of knockdowns from left hands to the head of the 35-year-old Prograis. That was by far the most interesting round of the fight, as there were next to no punches landed in the other rounds. Prograis scored a flash knockdown from a jab in round five.
The scores
– 117-108
– 116-109
– 116-109
Prograis appeared gunshy after the ninth and failed to follow his trainer’s instructions to go on the attack in the final three rounds. He looked like he was afraid of getting dropped again by Catterall.
It’s not that Catterall was throwing with a lot of power or anything, but Prograis lacked the chin to attack him in the way he needed to win. Catterall was retreated all around the ring when pressured by Prograis, making it difficult to get to him without actually chasing him.
“I knew I had to up my game. Regis come tonight and give me a hell of a fight,” said Catterall to Matchroom Boxing after the win.
The 28-year-old Catterall has a Shakur-esque retreating style, and Prograis didn’t look like he’d prepared for that kind of movement. Catterall’s movement made the fight incredibly boring to watch.
To defeat that style, Prograis would have had to run after him, and take the pothots that Catterall would land. He wasn’t equipped to handle either of those tasks. Hence, Prograis lost a fairly wide decision.
It was good matchmaking on Catterall’s behalf because there are contenders in the 140-lb division that would have given him a lot of problems tonight, but not Progras. This was his second straight loss for Regis, and he’s going to need to consider retirement because he looked gunshy, like a fighter who can no longer pull the trigger.
Catterall will now fight the winner of the December 7th clash between IBF light welterweight champion Liam Paro and Richardson Hitchins. The unbeaten Hitchins has a very similar style to Catterall with the retreating method he uses.
