WBC Champ Regis Prograis Stands Strong in the Ring by Studying the Greats
But having lost the title in his first defense after a heartbreaking defeat on points against Josh Taylor, the man from New Orleans, LA, vowed to reclaim his spot at the top. In November, 2022, Prograis made good on that promise by knocking out Jose Zepeda to claim the vacant WBC super-lightweight title. This Saturday (June 17), Prograis will defend his title in his hometown for the first time.
M&F sat down with the southpaw, 34, to find out what he’s picked up from some of the greats, and why he gives everything that he’s got when it comes to training for a fight.
While Prograis must stay below 140 pounds to fit within his weight class, this boxer is becoming an immovable object when it comes to dominating from the centre of the ring. To achieve this, the fighter devotes much of his time to training legs. “I do a lot of stuff,” says than man also known as “Rougarou” (Louisiana French for “werewolf” in homage to his grandfather of Native American descent). “So, I run long distance, I run sprints and I run the stairs too. And then, on top of that we do swimming and a lot of leg exercises too.” When it comes to hitting the pool, Prograis mixes things up with varied sessions. Sometime he’ll do sprint work, and other days the boxer will swim long distance. He also works on his lung capacity by swimming under water.
If you see the WBC super lightweight champ out on one of his runs, you may notice that he likes to wear army boots. He’s been doing that almost since the very beginning of his career. “In the military, you know, they train, they run miles and miles in combat boots. I kinda do the same thing,” he shares, explaining the motivation behind this method of training. “All of the great fighters of the past, they used to do it, so that’s really the only reason I do it … like, from Ray Robinson, Harry Armstrong, Joe Louis and George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, I mean the list goes on and on, you know, everybody running in boots and I don’t know when we started coming away from it … but that’s something I still do.”
The champ has also learned that recovery is a key aspect of getting into prime condition between fights, noting that in the beginning of his pro career, he was always sore. 30 minutes before our interview, Prograis says that he was in his cold plunge tub, and feels that it revives him to the point where he’s feeling great. “Of course, you have to get adequate sleep,” notes the champ. “You get massages, you know, all those types of things.” Prograis is always hungry for knowledge and says that he picked up the tip of taking regular naps from “The Fighters Mind” by Sam Sheridan. “Recovery is super important because, I mean, if you feel bad, you won’t be able to train,” he explains.
