With Showtime’s major card Saturday night featuring pound for pound elite Mikey Garcia going for a world title in his fourth weight class, it is easy to overlook the excellent doubleheader the night before on the same network. Do not make that mistake. Friday night, recent former unified titleholder Julius Indongo meets blue chip prospect and emerging contender Regis Prograis in a bit of fantastic matchmaking. The co-feature is a good one too.
Julius Indongo (22-1, 11 KOs) has had a hell of a run in over the last year year and a half. The Namibian competed in the 2008 Olympic games, but he was largely an afterthought of a pro prospect after losing his first fight there. The early days of his professional career did little to change that as he built up his record at home. Namibia is an underrated boxing country that has produced a handful of world class fighters over the years, but it doesn’t provide any exposure internationally. Nor does it give fighters the opportunity to step up to the world level without leaving.
In December of 2016, Indongo did just that when he was picked to fight Russian titleholder Eduard Troyanovsky on the road. Troyanovsky wasn’t considered the cream of the crop junior welterweight, but he had a belt and is undoubtedly a significant power puncher. For all the world it looked like Indongo was brought in to be an easy defense before maybe looking forward to a bigger fight. No one knew who he was. Forty seconds after the opening bell, the Russian was out cold. Suddenly the boxing world knew about Julius Indongo, world titleholder.
Still, the fight was thought to be somewhat of a fluke by many. First round knockouts often are. Plus, the Namibian didn’t exactly sport the record of a power puncher. Scottish titleholder Ricky Burns and his team seemed to be of that mindset when they decided to bring Indongo over to the UK to unify their two belts four months later. Twelve rounds of domination later, the Namibian that no one knew four months prior suddenly had two of the four junior welterweight world titles to wear around.
Unfortunately, lightning not strike a third time in August. Arguable top pound for pound fighter Terence Crawford had the other two belts, so it made all the sense in the world for the two men to fight and create an ultra-rare undisputed world champion. The fight was not competitive, but this time in the other man’s favor. Julius Indongo’s limitations were exposed at the sport’s absolute highest level as Crawford dismissed him in three rounds. Still, what a journey for an unknown Namibian fighter to rise up to the point where he can legitimately main event a highly anticipated ESPN show in the United States for an undisputed championship in just eight months time.
Friday night will be “The Blue Machine’s” first fight back since his loss to Crawford. I am worried for him that the result might be repeated against Regis “Rougarou” Prograis (20-0, 17 KOs). The New Orleans native, Houston based prospect has long been considered one of the best in the sport. While I cannot write paragraphs of a Cinderella story about Rougaroo like I can about Indongo, I can say that the 29 year old is a violent emerging contender in the ring. He is a plus athlete, reasonably skilled, and fights with real fire and aggression.
Last June it looked like Prograis was stepped up on paper to meet fellow unbeaten prospect Joel Diaz Jr in an excellent ShoBox main event. One murderous second round and four knockdowns later, that one was settled in a hurry. I think about the mental state Indongo must be in following the one sided destruction he experienced thanks to Crawford. Then I think about his somewhat wide open style too, plus Prograis’s precision, power, and aggression. Julius Indongo is going to have to fight a pinpoint fight from the outside for twelve rounds to take this one in my view. I don’t know if he is capable. I like Regis Prograis by stoppage in the mid rounds of what should be a really entertaining fight.
It should also be noted that the winner of the fight will get a world title opportunity in their next bout against the winner of next weekend’s Top Rank on ESPN main event between Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam for the vacant WBC title.
The show’s co-main event was saved last minute by an excellent late replacement. Crude but fun Belorussian prospect Ivan Baranchyk (17-0, 10 KOs) was supposed to find himself in a beautiful stylistic showdown with slick European titleholder Anthony Yigit, but all looked lost when Yigit pulled out a few days ago. Fear not as Spain based Russian Petr Petrov (38-5-2, 19 KOs) has stepped in last minute to save the day.
In terms of this being an action fight, this is likely even a better mix. Yigit would have tried to box Baranchyk, but Petrov is more of a traditional come forward guy in there. He is quite technical in his attack still though. Baranchyk is not technical at all. In fact, his wild swings are often more comical than anything else. Petrov is being pulled up a weight class here and is fighting on short notice, however, so I do have concerns about his ability to go far in the fight. Either way this one goes, I suspect it will be fun.
This show is being billed as a “Showtime Boxing: Special Edition,” basically meaning that the card is too big to be a ShoBox but not quite big enough to be a main Showtime card. It begins at 10 PM Eastern and I am looking forward to it.
