![]() He always stressed that he had no illusions about the gravity of his profession.Īt 7.15pm, as Conwell and Abreu began the last round, Prograis shadow-boxed in his dressing room. Prograis had also read some of my books which include the tragic deaths of numerous boxers. I couldn’t stop thinking about Day as we watched Conwell on Saturday’s undercard. On the morning of Prograis’ loss to Taylor, on 26 October 2019, they had buried Patrick Day, a fighter who had been beaten into a coma by Conwell’s fists two weeks earlier. Our attention shifted back to the muted television screen where Charles Conwell was caught up in a fierce struggle against Juan Carlos Abreu. He and Prograis had been friends for years and the warmth of his good wishes softened the ominous edge. Nonito Donaire, the great Filipino-American boxer who had won world titles at four different weights from flyweight to featherweight, slipped unobtrusively into the room. If you’re hurt I got to see you fighting back, otherwise I’m stopping it.” “You could end up in deep water but I will not let you drown,” Corona told Prograis when he gave his pre-fight instructions at 6.40pm. Another reminder of the looming battle arrived in the company of the referee Ray Corona. The sound was turned off but the noise of the crowd outside occasionally erupted when a fighter in the ring was hurt or knocked down. The first hour dragged as we watched the undercard on a television in a corner of the locker room. Zepeda combined raw power with the accuracy of a sharp-shooter. The Mexican-American from Long Beach was also on a winning streak with an impressive 35-2 record. But, all week in LA, Zepeda stressed his determination to become a world champion in his own backyard. When Taylor relinquished the WBC belt four months ago, rather than face a mandatory defence against the hard-hitting Zepeda, Prograis was finally granted another chance. Considered too risky an opponent, he suffered at the hands of promoters and rivals who preferred to avoid offering him another title shot. It had been a world title unification contest and so, for the past three years, Prograis was shut out of his division’s elite contests. His solitary defeat had occurred in October 2019 when, in one of the great fights that year, he was unlucky as the WBA champion to lose a majority decision to Josh Taylor in London. After 28 contests as a pro, Prograis had been victorious in all but one bout. Prograis and his trainer Bobby Benton were the epitome of calm. “It’s like I’ve got a midnight storm moving through my body,” Williams said. Ross Williams, a writer who has been close to Prograis since they were six-year-old boys in New Orleans, gripped my arm when I asked how he was feeling. Let’s sit down and make the fight.In his dressing room Prograis spoke to me in a typically relaxed way while, in contrast, his oldest friend shuddered with trepidation. “If Regis Prograis is serious about fighting, we can sit down and negotiate. “I want any world champion,” Ramirez said. Ramirez, though, said it’s still possible. There weren’t any negotiations of substance and what would have been a compelling and important bout went off into the ether. He wasn’t sure how much he would make if he fought Prograis, who was ordered by the WBC to defend against Ramirez with a 65-35 split of revenues in favor of Prograis. I wanted to make a statement and show that I’m the stronger guy in there.”Īfter it was over, Ramirez called out Prograis. And he picked it up in the middle of the fight, too. “I hurt him in the first round, but he’s a tough guy,” Ramirez said. Ramirez came away with great respect for him. And I went back to my old self.”Ĭommey is nothing if not tough and he battled his way back into the fight, even though Ramirez was in command and never really in difficulty.īut Ramirez was rusty and needed some work and so it helped him that Commey was able to gut it out and make it into a battle. I started with that rhythm and being active with my punches throughout the round. “There came a point in my career where I got too comfortable. “It’s always hard after a layoff, but mentally, I had to go back to being my old self and start strong,” Ramirez said.
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