Regis Prograis does not rule out the possibility of former WBA welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero beating Ryan Garcia in their fight in Times Square in New York next May.
Sparring Session Flashback
Former 140lb champion Prograis feels Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) is so wild with his punches and hard to time, he could catch Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) with anything. Regis points to a sparring session between Garcia and Rolando from 2018 to support his case for Rolly’s victory.
Sparring has nothing to do with a real fight, especially when it happened seven years ago when Garcia was thin and still a teenager. Rolly looked like a below average fighter throughout his career, and no doubt he should have two additional defeats on his resume from his fights against Ismael Barroso and Jackson Marinez, which would make his real record was 14-4.
“Rolly and Ryan, I’ve seen the sparring footage. I don’t think it’s actually a predictable fight, because both of them are so wild, and both of them can throw punches,” said Regis Prograis to MillCity Boxingdiscussing the May 2 fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in Times Square in New York.
“Ryan can land big punches, and Rolly can land big punches. I’d say Ryan, but I don’t know if you’ve seen the sparring. Rolly used to beat the crap out of Ryan in the gym. Rolly is wild. and sometimes it’s hard time and fight someone who is wild like that.
“So, I’ll go with Ryan, but I won’t count Rolly out until I hit him with something. I prefer Ryan because he has more big fight experience and stuff like that. I favor him because he’s a bigger star. He’s got that hook , but at the same time, Rolly is wild and could catch him with anything. So, I would just favor Ryan, but it will be an interesting fight for sure,” said Prograis.
Regis giving Rolly Romero too much credit for a sparring session that happened seven years ago in 2018. Ryan was 19 at the time and Rolly was 22. Kingry is now 26, and much bigger than he was during that sparring session . The way Rolly bum-rushed Garcia during that sparring would have knocked him out today because he was nailed by one of his left hooks.
Rolly will likely lose to Ryan’s past opponents, Oscar Duarte, Devin Haney and Javier Fortuna. Garcia would be better off fighting a rematch with Duarte rather than using the recently-matched Romero as his opponent, because there is no gain in fighting him now and there never was. It is surprising that Turki Al-Sheikh did not veto this choice of opponent. If it were me, I’d say, “No, Rolly’s not fit to main event on the Times Square card. He’s not even worthy of being on the undercard.
Haney Rematch Inevitable
“Yes, I do,” Prograis said when asked if he favors Garcia in a rematch with Devin Haney. “If Devin can beat Ryan, he can show his greatness. If you can beat someone who beats you like that (it’s special). When you take away all the supplements he (Ryan) was taking, and we took him out (the rematch could be different ).
It’s a no-brainer that Garcia will beat Devin Haney in the rematch. For fans who cling to the belief that the only reason Ryan won was because he tested positive for Ostarine, they are kidding themselves. He won because he was the better fighter, and Haney can’t take a hard punch.
Devin’s habit of constant clinching that he developed from his fight against Jorge Linares came back to bite him in this fight, as that put him right in the firing line for short left hooks from Ryan. of Garcia in training camp, and made sure he didn’t try to keep it.
Unfortunately, the excessive holding that Devin does has become too ingrained for him to stop using. If you take that away from Haney, it would break him, leaving him as a fractured, vulnerable fighter, food for almost anyone from 135 to 147. His whole game is built around jabbing and holding now.
“We don’t know if it was true or not, but shit still happened (Garcia tested positive for Ostarine),” Regis said. “We can tell what was in his system, but that fight still happened. He still took him down, hurt him, and dropped him three times. If he (Haney) can come out of this and win, what really it will show its greatness.
Regis on Haney vs. Ramirez
“It’s possible (Kingry beats Haney in the rematch), but we’ll see what Devin is. We’ll see what he does with (Jose) Ramirez first. In boxing, anything is possible,” Prograis said.
Regis is right about fans needing to see if Haney will win his fight against former WBA and WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) on May 2 because it’s likely to lose for him. Turki didn’t say anything about Haney needing to win his fight against Ramirez in order for him to get the Kingry rematch in October. So it likely won’t matter if Haney is beaten by Ramirez. It’s a throwaway fight.
