Regis Prograis says he sees himself scoring a “brutal stoppage” of Devin Haney on Saturday night. The WBC light welterweight champion Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) says he feels that he’s put in so much hard work that he can’t picture himself losing to the challenger Haney (30-0, 15 KOs) in their fight at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
Regis insists that if it somehow goes to the scorecards, he trusts the judges and thinks they’ll give a fair verdict. Haney’s last fight was a controversial twelve round decision against Vasily Lomachenko in Las Vegas last May.
Many fans believe Prograis needs a knockout to win because he’s fighting the mini-superstar, Haney, who is making his homecoming in front of what is expected to be a large crowd of 18,000 fans this Saturday, December 9th.
Prograis visualizing stoppage of Haney
“It’s only victory, and I think it’s going to be a brutal stoppage,” said Regis Prograis to the media about his prediction for his title defense against Devin Haney this Saturday night on DAZN PPV.
If Prograis can score a knockout, that’ll make things easier because he can eliminate any guesswork about who the better fighter is and fall into the same trap that we saw happen to Lomachenko last May.
Haney didn’t seem to care that his fight was viewed as a robbery, as he moved on without giving Lomachenko a rematch.
Prograis predicts Haney to move up
“I think he’ll go to 147. I don’t think he’ll go back to 135,” said Prograis on where Haney will go after he loses. “Maybe they want to play those types of games, but nothing is working.”
Haney will likely try to set up a rematch with Prograis if he loses unless the fight is a bad knockout. If Devin gets blown out, he could move on, but he probably would think twice about going up to welterweight.
“Yesterday, we had a face-off, and I heard Bill [Haney] say, ‘You’re working on your right hook.’ First, you said it was a left hand. Now you’re saying it’s a right hook. Obviously, I only got two hands. I can’t hit you with my tail.
“So, they trying to play mind games. Literally, none of the s*** is working. I’m so locked in. I’m so focused. Like I said, I don’t care what the media says. I’m disconnected from everything.”
The fact that Prograis is talking about Bill Haney trying to play mind games with him suggests that he’s bothered enough by the thing he’s saying to him for him to waste energy talking about it. If it really didn’t bother Prograis, he wouldn’t mention it.
Regis says he’s evolved since defeat
“It’s only in my head what’s going on. I’m a way better fighter. That was four years ago,” said Prograis about his loss to Josh Taylor in 2019. “I’m a different mind. I’m a different animal. Way, way different.”
Josh Taylor might still have Prograis’ number if they were to fight today. Prograis looked mentally tied in knots against Taylor, and we saw the same thing from him in his last fight against Danielito Zorrilla last June. Prograis hasn’t improved.
“Sometimes, but at the same time, I feel like the judges are going to be fair. I haven’t seen Eddie [Hearn] that. I told him that. He said, ‘No, it’s not my boy.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s your boy. I’m going to beat your boy’s a**,'” said Prograis about his conversation with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn based on his belief that he’s hoping Haney beats him.
“Like I said, it don’t matter. I’m so locked in; I’m so focused. It don’t what people got to say. It don’t matter nothing. It’s going to be me and him in the ring, and that’s all that matters,” said Prograis.
Overall, Prograis paints a picture of a confident fighter who is laser-focused on achieving victory through a brutal stoppage. Unfazed by mind games or external doubts, he trusts his preparation and believes he will emerge victorious on fight night.
