Regis Prograis was angry at hearing today’s news of Jose Ramirez fighting Richard Commey on March 25th at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.
WBC light welterweight champion Prograis says Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs) never had any intention of fighting him when the two were in negotiations for a fight and instead was planning all along to face the 36-year-old Commey (30-4-1, 27 KOs) in a Top Rank-promoted fight on ESPN in March.
Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) says the former WBC/WBO 140-lb champion Ramirez has been ducking him for five years, and this move confirms his belief.
As such, instead of Ramirez fighting for a world title against Prograis, he’ll be fighting for arguably less money against Commey with no titles in a lackluster fight on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+.
The chief support bout on the Ramirez-Commey card is Seniesa “Super Bad” Estrada vs. Tina Rupprecht.
“He ended up lying, saying he’s not going to fight. You already knew you were going to fight Richard Commey in March,” said Regis Prograis to Rainbow Alexander about Jose Ramirez never being serious about wanting to fight him.
“‘Y’all already had this planned. So don’t say you’re trying to fight me when you’re fighting Richard Commey. How are you going to be fighting me when you’re fighting Richard Commey in March?’ So he already knew this.
“He was, ‘Nah, nah, I’m not fighting Richard Commey. That’s just what Top Rank wants to give me. I’m not fighting him.’ Ellie was like, ‘Don’t believe everything you read. He’s not fighting Richard Commey.’ The next thing you know, it’s announced that he’s fighting Richard Commey.
“I was like, ‘Bro, come on. You’re full of s**t.’ Ramirez has been ducking me for five years, and I’m champion. I’m a two-time world champion, and he’s still ducking me. He still doesn’t want to fight me.
“He’s definitely feeling the smoke I’m putting on his a**. He said I didn’t give him a good offer. Listen, f**k the offer, bro. If I believe in myself and believe I can win. The offer wasn’t from my team. it was from the WBC, the sanctioning body. They said the split is 35-65. Listen, it’s really supposed to be 70-30, right? So, they gave him an extra 5%. They literally gave him an extra 5%.
“He was like, ‘Nah, nah, we need to do 50-50 or 60-40.’ Come on, bro. Really? I just said that if it was me and the other way around, I’m taking that fight. Do you know why? I believe in myself, and I know I can win that fight. I believe in myself.
“Maybe his team don’t believe he can beat me. So that’s why they didn’t take the fight. So, I think he said that I’m going to be begging for fights. Alright, I’m going to beg for fights.
“They were saying, ‘I ain’t going to take this amount of money.’ I’m not going to talk about what I’ve got going on, but something big is in the works. The people will find out when they find out, and we’ll just leave it like that,” said Prograis.