Regis Prograis says he views a fight against former two-division world champion Danny Garcia as an easy one for him in which he would “whoop” the Philadelphia native handily.
Prograis (25-1, 21 KOs) isn’t impressed with what he’s seen from Danny ‘Swift’ (36-3, 21 KOs) since he moved up to the 147-lb division in 2015.
Interestingly, Prograis believes he would beat Danny worse than Errol Spence Jr did last December. Spence did a pretty good job of beating Danny at his own game by out-slugging him in a one-sided 12 round decision victory.
He’s not the same fighter that he was previously when he was campaigning as a 140-lb fighter. Regis says he could wind up facing Danny Garcia after he moves up to 147 in the future.
Despite recently suffering his third loss in the last fights, Garcia has no plans to move back down to 140 to rejuvenate his deteriorating career.
If Danny loses too many more fights, it might not be worth it for Prograis to fight him when he moves up to 147 in a year or two. There’s not much Prograis will be able to gain in fighting a gatekeeper like Danny.
Regis: I’ll beat Danny Garcia worse than Spence did
“I still feel like I won the Josh Taylor fight, but it was a close fight,” said Prograis to iFL TV. “I think once someone takes an official loss on their record, they lose confidence.
“With me, I gained confidence. I still feel like I’m the best in the world at 140. I just gained confidence. For me, I have to get back to the top of the division. That’s my goal.
“He’s still a big name, but at 147, he never did [anything], but he was good at 140,” said Prograis about Danny Garcia.
“Don’t get me wrong; he was really good at 140 and did his thing there. All the big fights, he came through, but at 147, not so much.
“He’s not that good at 147. They call him ‘Cherry-picker’ and all that type. I still respect Danny. I went to the [Errol Spence Jr vs. Garcia ] fight.
“I was right there at the fight with him and Errol, and he didn’t look that good. I definitely think that once I go up to 147, that’s a fight that I would definitely want.
“Maybe my introduction into the division or something like that. My first or second fight in the division. I actually think I beat him easy.
“I think I beat him way worse than Errol beat him. I just think because of my style, I could beat him very, very easy.
“I think I whoop him bad. Everyone says you can only tell when you get in the ring with somebody. Of course, I’m never been in the ring with Danny.
“Everybody has different speed and different power. Once you get in the ring with them, but he just didn’t look that good to me. That’s it. I really think I could beat him.
“I could shut him out. I’m not even going to say that I can knock him out. He’s never been knocked out before.
“He’s tough, and he has a tough chin. But I definitely think I could pitch a shutout of Danny,” said Prograis.
It’ll be fun to see if Prograis can stand and trade with the heavy-handed Danny Garcia for 12 rounds the way Spence did.
Spence was willing to stay in the pocket and throw bombs with Danny the entire fight, and it wasn’t an easy match for him. Spence got hit with some massive punches from Danny, but he took them well.
Prograis wants Broner fight in 2021
I think it’s a good thing for me,” Prograis said about Adrien Broner making a comeback next month after two years out of the ring.
“I think that’s what they’re trying to set up. They’re trying to set up me and Broner. I think that’ll be a huge fight at 140.
You have a lot of people out there fighting, but if me and Broner fight, that’ll be the biggest fight you can make. You still got the champions. You got [Jose] Ramirez.
“The people with the official [140-lb] belts are Ramirez and [Josh] Taylor. But listen, if you put Ramirez and Taylor, and me and AB, people [in the United States] will pay way more attention to me and him if me and him end up fighting.
I think that is a big potential match-up between me and him. It could happen this year. Him coming back and being focused is a real good thing for me because it looks like people are believing in him again.
If he has a good performance in his next fight, I think his name will be right back at the top. I think it’s all better for me.
Nobody has told me about any official dates, but it could probably happen this year. So it’s noting official, but they always say maybe because with Broner, you just never know.
Sometimes he’ll get in trouble, and sometimes he’ll do crazy stuff. You never know with him. Right now, he’s looking focused,” said Regis.
Prograis is hoping to fight Broner, but that might happen soon. During a recent interview, Broner didn’t sound excited about fighting Prograis when asked about him.
Broner will go in the direction where he can make the most money, which might not be Prograis.
The former four-division world champion Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs) is fighting next month on Showtime on February 13th against an opponent still to be determined.
It’s been two years since Broner last fought, and he might not be the easy guy that he was in his best years. Broner is taking his training seriously and has dropped 40+ lbs.
He looks thin now, and now quite like how the young Broner looked. He has the look of someone that took too much weight off in a hurry, which might not be a good thing.
Regis’ top priority to capture title
“If you look at him on Instagram, he’s skinny, he lost 40 or 50 pounds or something like that,” Prograis said about Broner.
“He’s looking focused. I think it’s coming closer and closer to reality, and it could happen.
“I won’t say he’s #1, but he’s a top priority,” Prograis said when asked if fighting Broner is his top priority.
“My thing is, I want to get the belts back. I always say make money, but the money always comes with prestige.
“I think if I fight Broner, all those things, I think that it could be but I won’t say it’s my #1 priority.
“I just want to fight whoever and get my belts back and do all that type of stuff. But I think he’s [Broner] a top priority, top three for sure.
“I always talk s*** about Broner. Everyone always says, ‘What do you got to say about Broner?’
“It depends on how I’m feeling. I hope he looks spectacular in his next fight in this next month coming up, and me and him can get it on sometime this year,” said Broner.
Prograis might have a chance of fighting Josh Taylor or Jose Ramirez after the two battle it out in May.
Both guys could move up to 147 soon. So if Prograis wants to fight them, he may need to go up to welterweight.