Regis Prograis surrendered his WBC super lightweight title in a drab performance he won’t be proud of against Devin Haney.
“Rougarou” promised much going into the fight. However, he failed to deliver significantly in a loss that won’t help his reputation moving forward.
On the back of Shakur Stevenson taking heat for his shot-shy victory over Edwin De Los Santos, Prograis broke an unwanted record in defeat.
According to CompuBox, less than a month after Edwin De Los Santos landed only 40 total punches against Shakur Stevenson, Prograis landed 36 punches over twelve rounds against Haney.
This set the new CompuBox record for the fewest total punches landed in a twelve-round fight.
Prograis only landed two punches in six of the twelve rounds. Haney’s elusiveness resulted in Prograis landing ten percent of his punches.
In his post-fight interview, Prograis was at a loss for words about Haney’s skill set.
Devin Haney dominates Regis Prograis
“That mf-er’s good. He’s better than I thought he was,” said Prograis. “I just couldn’t get to him.
“I thought he was a soft puncher. He does have power. I was down and I was like, ‘What the f- happened?'”
Haney’s accuracy resulted in him landing 47% of his power punches.
Except for body punches landed, Haney dominated Prograis in every statistical category tracked by CompuBox. He also scored the fight’s sole knockdown in the third round.
Haney becomes a two-weight world champion, adding to his disputed reign as four-belt ruler at 135 pounds. But whether he won or didn’t win the WBC version at lightweight still causes debate today.
A loss to Vasilily Lomachenko also hurts his claim to be undefeated. However, Haney’s talent cannot be denied.
Welterweight moves
After the triumph, he said: “I wanted to go in there. I know I was getting him hurt,” Haney explained. “My dad said to stay focused and stick to the game plan.”
On what’s next, Haney added: “We got a lot of options, we talked about going to 147. We’re going to talk to the team and see what’s next.
“I felt so much stronger in this camp. I felt great. 140, you got a new king.”
Haney wouldn’t be the first champion to bypass super lightweight immediately after claiming a title. If he did move to 147, there would be many big fights for him.
Adrien Broner, Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., and Josh Taylor are just a few. There’s also the possibility of a clash with boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, who recently confirmed he is willing to make a full professional return at 45.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer and has been the Editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
