Redis Prograis suffered a sprained ankle when he slipped on the canvas in the 11th round of his loss to Jack Catterall on Saturday night at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
(Credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed the injury, and Prograis (29-3, 24 KOs) confirmed he was hurt when he went down in the 11th round after throwing and missing a wild right hand that was meant to be a Punch savior of the struggle of Ave Maria.
What I Keep Prograis to win
– No pressure capability
– Punching combination
– Body attack
– Not equipped to cut the ring
– Strong chin
Considering Prograis had been fighting on one leg since the 11th round, he did an admirable job in a 12-round unanimous decision loss to 31-year-old Catterall in his home country. The judges scored it 117-108, 116-109 and 116-109.
Prograis went down twice in round nine after cutting with left hands. Catterall was on the canvas in the fifth round from a jab that caused him to trip.
Prograis would have won the fight if he had the right tools but lacked the technical skills. It was a match he should have been able to win.
For a fighter who has been in the game for 12 years and won two world titles, it is shocking that Prograis has never learned how to apply pressure, attack the body, or cut the ring.
A combat like Guglielmo Zepeda from the lightweight division it would have been a nightmare for Catterall tonight because of all the above areas that Prograis was lacking in his game, which is strong.
Catterall would have been forced to fight, he would have been pressed non-stop, and attacked to the body. If you had to design a fight in a laboratory to defeat Catterall, Zepeda would be the creation and promoter Eddie Hearn would be miserable afterwards.
“Maybe 12 rounds is too much for me right now,” Regus Prograis told DAZN Boxing when interviewed after his loss to Catterall on Saturday night. “I started fading in the next rounds. I hurt my knee. I hurt my ankle. It’s because it’s been too long, I think. For now, I have to do something else and let the young people take their place” .
“The first three rounds or four rounds,” said Eddie Hearn to the Stomping Grounds about how Catterall started slowly. “You don’t pit two guys against each other. You pit two top-five fighters against each other, and sometimes when there’s so much on the line, the first three rounds are going to be a little cagey.
“It was the fifth round it was the knockdown and it changed the fight. All of a sudden, I thought Jack was probably behind after the fifth or sixth round. So, I had to go from there and be more aggressive. When I was more aggressive , it hurt Regis,” Hearn said.
The punch that initially hurt Prograis in round nine came when he was being attacked, and he landed it in self-defense. It was no accident that Catterall was aggressive. He was never aggressive in fighting in the traditional sense. Even after Catterall dropped Prograis twice in round nine, he threw almost no punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12. Catterall was playing it safe, afraid to let go of his hands for fear of being clipped.
“By the way, Regis Prograis is a real fighter. He was a big talker. He turned his ankle completely in the 11th round. He went on in the 12th round. Yeah, because he dislocated his ankle. He was stuck. He couldn’t even stand. over, but he never stopped trying to win the fight. Massive respect for him,” Hearn said.
Let’s look at it this way: The injured ankle was not the reason Prograis lost tonight to Catterall. He lost because he didn’t know how to pressure, cut the ring, throw punches to the body, or handle the unique pieces that Catterall had hit him with. Prograis was doomed to lose without a good chin because he couldn’t win with his poor punch resistance.
