Regis Prograis’ decision of which promotion to sign with mainly came down to two factors that were somewhat intertwined.
After defeating Jose Zepeda by KO in November 2022 to win WBC junior welterweight world title, he found himself in an unusual scenario.
The 34-year-old Prograis (28-1) was a free agent, a rarity for someone of his stature as a two-time world champion, and he decided to represent himself in negotiations.
“It was definitely stressful,” Prograis told The Post. “It’s something that I wanted to do from the beginning… I’m not saying that I’m gonna manage myself for the rest of my career, but I just feel like right now, that’s the route I’m going. Maybe I will hire somebody to negotiate and stuff like that later down the line, but right now, I was a free agent, and it’s just hard to trust people at that stage of my career. Because everybody knows I’m a free agent, I’m going to demand a lot of money right now. So people know, whoever comes in, they’re looking at me like a dollar sign. Obviously it’s gonna be like that, but I didn’t want it to be like that at that stage of my career…
“I wanted to sit and meet with the promoters myself. I didn’t want any manager to sit in there and then come tell me what he wants to tell me. No, I wanted to sit in the meeting myself. I wanted to see these guys’ faces, I wanted to see their facial expressions, I wanted to see their body language, I wanted to have the conversations myself. I didn’t want to just let a manager sit in these conversations and then tell me what they wanted to tell me. I wanted to get the whole story myself.”
After engaging in those conversations himself, Prograis decided to sign with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing amid heavy competitions from rival promoters.
Matchroom already has set up his first fight with the company — he defends his WBC 140-pound belt against Danielito Zorrilla (17-1) as the main event on their card on Saturday night (8 p.m. Eastern, DAZN) at the Smoothie King Center in Prograis’ hometown of New Orleans.
It was that sense of urgency, and focus, on him and his career that helped Prograis settle on Matchroom.
“It was a really, really difficult choice,” Prograis said. “Every day, I went back and forth on who I should go with. I would wake up and be like ‘I’m going to Top Rank.’ And I would call my people like ‘I’m going to Top Rank.’ And then the next day I would wake up and be like ‘no, I’m going to Matchroom.’ And it went like that, it literally went back and forth every single day for about three weeks straight.
“One of the things that kind of stuck out, if I would’ve went to Top Rank, I would’ve just been like another fighter over there. I would’ve been a part of their plans, and I feel like with Matchroom, I’m just more of a priority. I am the plan. I’m more of a priority over at Matchroom. And that’s kind of how I want to feel. I want to feel like I’m a priority. I don’t want to feel like I’m just another world champion over there, because Top Rank, they do have a lot of world champions, even in my weight class and around my weight class. I would just be over there. With Matchroom, I am one of the only ones over there, so I think I will be more prioritized.”
Beyond a sense of priority, Prograis pointed simply to fight dates as the other main reason for Matchroom.
The promotion offered him the date he has on Saturday, whereas Top Rank didn’t offer him a date until mid-August, Prograis claimed.
Knowing himself, Prograis said he would train all summer if he had a fight in August, while he will be able to enjoy a summer vacation after his fight on Saturday instead.
The junior welterweight division is wide open at the moment with four different champions, most recently Teofimo Lopez after he beat Josh Taylor last Saturday to claim the WBO belt.
That means there is a plethora of intriguing fights for Prograis and Matchroom looming as long as he gets through Zorrilla.
He could challenge one of the other champions in the division — Lopez, IBF belt-holder Subriel Matias or WBA belt-holder Rolando Romero — for a unified title, but all belong to rival promotions and a fight will be difficult to make.
Prograis mentioned a rematch with Josh Taylor — the only opponent to ever beat him and took his WBA belt from him — and Jack Catterall as possible foes, although neither would offer him a chance at another title.
Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney is also likely to move up to 140 pounds soon, and amid his own promotional free agency, Hearn offered him a title fight against Prograis as incentive to fight with Matchroom.
Former lightweight star Ryan Garcia has now firmly moved into the division as well.
Now with a new team around him, Prograis has a plethora of strong options to continue his quest of establishing himself as the division’s top dog.
Whoever it is, Prograis wants him.
“I welcome the challenge,” Prograis said. “I feel like I’m the best in the world in my division. I welcome any fighter. Literally any fighter, I will fight any one of them at 140 [pounds]. I think I’m the right guy for a lot of people because of the title. I’m the only two-time world champion in the division right now. And I have the WBC belt, and I’m No. 1 right now. I think that’s why I’m the best challenge for a lot of people.”