Season two of the World Boxing Super Series marches on with two junior welterweight quarterfinals in New Orleans.
The buzz around Regis Prograis (22-0, 19 KOs) began to build in 2015 when he got his first national exposure on Showtime’s venerable prospect based series ShoBox. He first won a dominant decision over Amos Cowart, but it was his second fight on the series against a very game Abel Ramos that really began to open eyes. Regis Prograis, affectionately known as “Rougarou,” absolutely beat Ramos up before he pulled out of the fight after eight rounds. That fight launched Rougarou into major prospect status and he built his record from there over the next year and a half against regional level guys.
2017 marked his ascension to the top level of the division. First, he returned to ShoBox one last time for a battle with fellow promising unbeaten Joel Diaz Jr. That was a two round demolition. Next came another two round massacre over recent former unified junior welterweight titleholder Julius Indongo. The Indongo fight was supposed to be part of a WBC tourney that never quite panned out, but it did net Prograis the secondary belt he defends today. The idea there was that Rougarou would eventually meet young Top Rank titleholder Jose Ramirez. Top Rank hasn’t been too keen on that idea for obvious reasons, however, and it hasn’t come to fruition. They placated Prograis with a Top Rank on ESPN main event in his most recent fight, an eight round thrashing of Juan Jose Velasco, and now Regis has joined the World Boxing Super Series.
British opponent Terry Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) has been in some form of the lime light for much longer even though both men are 29. His breakthrough came in 2012 when he became a somewhat long shot winner of Matchroom Boxing’s one night, eight man Prizefighter tournaments that were fought in the form of three fights with three minute rounds. It was one of the better fields the format ever had with strong domestic level talent and Flanagan rose above it all. The following year he beat a rapidly aging Nate Campbell before taking the traditional step of winning the British belt in 2014.
From there, Flanagan’s eyes were set strictly on a world title. The following summer, he got his chance for a vacant WBO lightweight belt against undefeated Mexican Jose Zepeda. The Brit won, but not satisfyingly. Zepeda was forced out of the fight with a shoulder injury in the second round. The Manchester man’s first defense was the opposite though. I remember thinking Flanagan would likely lose to Diego Magdaleno, but instead he put on the most inspired performance in his career by dropping the American three times on route to a second round finish.
That was a great night for him, but unfortunately it remains by far the high water mark of his career. Flanagan’s next four defense were notably weak even in the four belt era. Of Derry Matthews, Mzonke Fana, Orlando Cruz, and Petr Petrov, only the Russian-Spaniard is anything more than a good regional level fighter and he is far from world class himself. After the competitive Petrov fight, Terry chose to vacate his belt and move up to junior welterweight. It looked like he was again getting a favorable matchup in a title fight against a fighter in Maurice Hooker that had struggled against better opposition, but it didn’t play out that way. Hooker comfortably outpointed a pretty listless Terry Flanagan in June, ridiculous split decision aside. That loss is all he has on his resume at 140 lbs before joining the World Boxing Super Series’s second season.
I do think styles made that fight to a point though. Terry Flanagan is comfortable off his back foot with his opponent coming at him. Maurice Hooker did not engage in that fight, instead drawing the British fighter forward. Flanagan isn’t an effective aggressor and it showed in June. Fortunately for him, Regis Prograis certainly isn’t going to make an effort to be the boxer on the outside in this fight. Rougarou knows one way and one way only in the ring. Forward. He’s going to attack and play right into to Terry Flanagan’s skill set. That’s the good news for the former lightweight titleholder. The bad is that it won’t matter at all. I’ll be absolutely shocked if Terry Flanagan shows the ability to keep Regis Prograis off him enough over twelve rounds to deserve a decision. He’s just not physically strong enough. Plus, the size advantages he enjoyed at lightweight are muted up at junior welterweight as well. Crazier things have happened in the sport than a Flanagan upset here though, of course. The style clash in a vacuum is in his favor. Prograis’s chin will be there for him too if he can pull off the perfect shot, though his knockout percentage doesn’t suggest that outcome as all likely. I just see them as two different classes of athletes in there. I am picking Rougarou by a mid to late round stoppage in defense of his interim WBC belt.
The winner will meet WBA titleholder Kyril Relikh in the tournament semifinals.
The vacant IBF junior welterweight title on the line in the co-main event is a real, full world title unlike the one Regis Prograis brings to the main event. It’s a compelling matchup of styles too with a difficult to predict outcome. Ivan Baranchyk (18-0, 11 KOs) of Belarus is the favorite largely based on exposure. He has come up on Shobox and was initially billed as a monster puncher, but it was quickly clear that even if that was true his absurdly open and crude style made it difficult for the power to find any success. Baranchyk was fun to watch, but looked to be a much more limited fighter than initially promised. That narrative changed a bit in March though. In an eliminator for this IBF opportunity, the Belorussian met a moving up Petr Petrov and used a much more measured approach to dominate and stop the smaller man. It was a surprising performance given his previous crude, winging tactics.
Swedish emerging contender and 2012 Olympian Anthony Yigit (21-0-1, 7 KOs) is a full sized junior welterweight, however, and he is a much different style of fighter than Petrov. The Russian-Spaniard comes forward and was an easy target for Baranchyk. Yigit is a mover. He’s applied the style well on the Euro level on his way to winning a European title and I slightly favor him to do the same here. While Ivan Baranchyk is physically on another level than the likes of Joe Hughes or Sandor Martin, I don’t think he is technically. He was more measured against against Petr Petrov, true, but Petrov was always going to be there to hit. As Yigit moves around the ring, I strongly suspect Baranchyk will resort to his ridiculous haymakers of fights past unless he is able to do damage early. Tigers and their stripes. If that is the case, the Swede will be able to outbox him. Either way, we’ll have a new titleholder at the end of the fight.
The winner of Baranchyk-Yigit will advance to the semifinals against the winner of the quarterfinal between Josh Taylor and Ryan Martin to be contested on November 4th.
DAZN has the broadcast from New Orleans at 9 PM Eastern on Saturday. This will eventually conflict with Jacobs-Derevyanchenko on HBO, but the beauty of a service like DAZN means that you can return to the stream where you left off after the HBO main event if you’d like.
