Regis Prograis haunted by missed opportunity!
It’s been a long three plus weeks in the UK for former WBA super lightweight champion Regis “Rougarou” Prograis (24-1, 20 KO’s).
The hard-hitting native of New Orleans traveled to the region in order to acclimate himself to the landscape and the people ahead of his unification bout with newly unified super lightweight champion Josh “The Tartan Tornado” Taylor (16-0, 12 KO’s).
“Doing perfect, finally get to go home, in the airport going home, can’t wait! Even though I enjoyed myself here, I had a whole lot of fun in London, but now it’s farewell!
“Time to go home.”
After touching down, Prograis found it surprising to discover that he was already quite well known by the native boxing fans. Unsurprisingly, even after dropping the UD loss, Prograis still feels like he is #1 in the division. Although, he admits that maybe he is 1b to Taylor’s 1a…for now!
Yet, it should be stressed that even in defeat, Prograis extended full credit to Taylor. The Rougarou fully acknowledged that Taylor was a dynamic fighter with great skills, toughness and ample punching power.
Putting the warm fuzzy feelings and mutual respect to the side for a second, Prograis is crystal clear on his desire to obtain a rematch against Taylor. While he may want to a quick run back, the Rougarou admits that he has not watched the bout himself.
Apparently, it’s still too raw and Prograis wants to detox a bit from boxing before watching the lively showdown as expressed to iFLTV.
“I still feel like, you know, I’m one of the best in the world at 140. You know I still feel like even though that was #1 and #2, I still can’t put, maybe he’s number 1a and I’m 1b.
“Maybe you can put that right now! But I still feel the same way you know? It was a close fight, it could have definitely gone either way.
“I thought that I won it, but of course you know I can’t disagree with the judges. At the end of the day the judges got the final say and you can’t disagree with them, and you know, that’s how it go.”
One reason that Prograis does not want to view the match just yet is because he still feels greatly haunted by the event.
When in the ring with Taylor, the Rougarou believes that there were a number of squandered opportunities to get the best of the Tartan Tornado. When revealing these thoughts, Prograis didn’t try to detract from Taylor’s win so much as speculate on what he could have done differently.
“I didn’t want to start watching the fight yet to assess. I’m kind of out of boxing mode right now, so I left all that stuff alone.
“I’ll watch it probably, you know? I’ll watch it when I get some quiet time to myself when I get back home. […] It was some moments in the fight that I felt like I had him, had him going that I felt like I could have stepped on the gas, I could have done somethings.
“It was just some moments that was in the fight that was only just between me and him, nobody else saw. Just between me and him that I feel like I really could have capitalized on and those things kind of haunt you when you feel like you supposed to do certain things and you didn’t do them at the time.
“But yeah, it’s tough, but it is what it is.”
The session of Sunday morning coaching was not simply a case of sour grapes either. Not only did Prograis not have anything negative to say about Taylor, he repeatedly wished him the best.
In fact, the Rougarou was just shy of hoping that the Tartan Tornado remained undefeated until he has the chance to lay his mitts on him again.
However, the former champ seemed to think that might be hating on another fighter. Thinking better of it, Prograis simply wished the best for his only professional conqueror.
Having put on a performance such as they did, both fighters have earned a well-deserved vacation. Like the Rougarou however, the boxing world would enthusiastically welcome the announcement of Taylor v Rougarou 2!
“I definitely want a rematch of course, you know one day […] let him do his thing, hopefully he get’s the Ramirez fight and then after that, you know, it’ll be the rematch.”
By: Bakari Simpson
