Regis Prograis return to his home city of New Orleans became a rather disappointing event following his split-decision victory over Puerto Rican contender Danielito Zorrilla. While Prograis was originally scheduled to face Liam Paro, the Australian contender was forced to pull out due to injury which prompted Zorrilla to fill his place. Prograis won the fight with scorecards of 117-110, 118-109 and 113-114 (in favor of Zorrilla).
In what could easily be styled as Regis Prograis’ worst performance as a performance due to the close battle he had with an opponent that was virtually unknown. Prograis didn’t help matters himself when an oversight of his defense saw him knocked down in the 1st round which fortunately didn’t count in this instance.
The rest of the fight saw Danielito Zorrilla mostly looking to survive as Regis Prograis established his rhythm and pace to regularly unleash onslaught of punches. Despite his activity, Zorrilla seemed hellbent on not getting knocked out which resulted in him fighting mostly on the backfoot, though he never shied away from appropriately countering and fighting back Prograis who chased him endlessly.
There was a controversial knockdown in the third round suffered by Zorrilla that seemed to create a buzz, but Zorrilla proved to be a surprisingly good match for Prograis who seemed unable to crack through Zorrilla’s defense. Prograis’ own defensive shortcomings were made apparent in this fight as Zorrila, despite being pressured, landed several good blows that suggested he had enough power to cause an upset stoppage/knockout if he pushed things further. However, despite Zorrilla showing he had the attributes to win, his willingness to grab a victory seemed to wane over the rounds allowing Prograis to establish himself as the favorite as he went on to largely control the match.
With the fight being too evenly-matched to call, it was Regis Prograis who was able to hold up his arm as the victor by split-decision at the end of the designated 12 rounds, but it was Zorrilla who mostly impressed with his boxing skills that had made him appear more than just a layover for Prograis to beat.
The match may have went either way or even gone through a draw, but Regis Prograis did just enough to warrant him being the victor and obviously had the home town advantage to aid him. While Zorrilla did prove to be better than expected, he did not press his advantages when needed and seemed to hold back at certain points; which can be attributed to Regis Prograis who is known to be powerful and can be an efficient puncher when needed.
The two judges’ scorecards that were wildly in Prograis’ favor did not seem to accurately reflect what was a close fight, but Prograis nonetheless did what he needed to do to grab an important homecoming victory after not fighting in New Orleans for approximately five years. As a result of his victory, he also retained his WBC Super Lightweight/Junior Welterweight title for the first time since capturing it in November of 2022.
Following his match, Regis Prograis admitted that his performance wasn’t up to task compared to his earlier performances throughout his career.
“It was a tough win. I felt I deserved the win, (but) it was a tough win.” Prograis said in his post-match interview.
When asked on who he might face next, Regis Prograis seemed open to the idea of facing some of the other champions in the division, including the still-reigning undisputed Lightweight champion Devin Haney (30-0, 15 KO’s) who was considering moving up to 140 pounds.
“It’s a lot of big names out there. They have (Devin) Haney, Teo (Lopez) ― well I don’t know what’s going on with him, (Subriel) Matias, he has a belt. I don’t want to fight Rolly (Romero), he’s a terrible fighter, but there’s a lot of big fights out there for me so we’ll see what’s happening.” Prograis said.
The Super Lightweight division now sees three different champions who have all yet to face each other. With Teofimo Lopez (19-1, 13 KO’s) having won his title the previous weekend ― only to subsequently retire and vacate his title, only Rolly Romero (15-1, 13 KO’s), Subriel Matias (19-1, 19 KO’s) and Regis Prograis remain as champions.
The division can currently considered to be wide-open for the taking for any contender, and the likes fRyan Garcia (23-1, 19 KO’s) and Devin Haney are already expected to move up and take advantage of the current state of the division which has not seen anyone unify since Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KO’s) and Josh Taylor (19-1, 13 KO’s) clashed against one another in 2021 with the latter ending up becoming the undisputed champion of the division.
