Prograis battles for bigger things as Indongo looks to return to the big stage
This Friday night starts off a big two weeks for the Junior Welterweight division. Live on Showtime from Deadwood, South Dakota we’ll see the hard hitting New Orleans native Regis “Rougarou” Prograis take on former IBF and WBA Junior Welterweight Champion Julius “Blue Machine” Indongo, for the interim WBC Junior Welterweight title.
For Prograis this is foreign territory as he’ll be fighting for his first world title. Although the lack of big fight experience exists for Prograis he has the power to make up for that with 17 knockouts in 20 fights. He’s coming off of his biggest win in his young career, where he defeated former undefeated prospect Joel Diaz Jr by completely overwhelming him on his way to a second round stoppage victory.
The man across from him Julius Indongo is no stranger to big fights, as he had to travel to Scotland and the backyard of Ricky Burns. In that fight he pulled off a big upset, dominating the favored champion and being crowned IBF and WBA Junior Welterweight Champion. Months later he faced arguably the top P4P fighter in the world Terence “Bud” Crawford in a unification matchup to determine the best fighter at 140. He didn’t fare too well in that fight, getting stopped in the third round by a body shot.
This will be a tough fight for Prograis as he will need to be able to close the distance and work the body of the longer more rangy Indongo, who is a southpaw that loves to box from the outside.
For Indongo, who took this fight on short notice, he needs to keep the fight on the outside turning Prograis and giving him different angles to deal with. With that being said, I’m going with Regis Prograis by mid round stoppage to claim the vacant interim WBC Junior Welterweight title.
By: Jerrell “Big Kool” Jasper
