Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis: Rivals meet in rare 50-50 fight where desire will triumph

Both fighters are in their old-fashioned fighting primes, matched in the rarest of fights at a time and in an age when boxers have so many reasons to avoid risks – it should be a classic

On Thursday afternoon by the Thames in east London, against the backdrop of a black-out storm, Regis Prograis wore sunglasses as he sat opposite Josh Taylor for the last time before they fight at the O2 on Saturday night.

They fight for a pile of championship trinkets, Taylor has one, Prograis two and a third has been conjured from the fantasy land of boxing madness for a fight where there is no need for gimmicky jewellery. It is also the final of the World Boxing Super Series - they have each won twice to get here - and the winner takes away the enormous Muhammad Ali Trophy, the golden trinket of trinkets.

Prograis is unbeaten in 24, Taylor in 15, they are in their old-fashioned fighting primes, matched in the rarest of fights at a time and in an age when boxers have so many reasons to avoid risks. “They both deserve praise for fighting each other - I’m not sure they would be if I was in charge,” admitted Eddie Hearn, the fight’s promoter.

There is something ancient about Taylor’s look as he met with Prograis, his drawn face as the hours slowly pass before he steps on the scales, his edginess to remain polite when all he wants to do is let his fists fly and the way he steals iron glances at Prograis. It’s a real fighter at work, oblivious to image.

Prograis has been in London for three weeks preparing for the fight, a bold move in modern days and the snatched ring reports from gyms where doors have been pulled closed, not locked tight, have been impressive; Prograis tried to land here as a boxer in disguise as a happy tourist, a smart part of his subtle deception. The bookies favour him ever so slightly and dozens of local experts, men that have caught a glimpse, do so heavily.

Taylor has the deeper amateur pedigree, Prograis the hard, short life in various spit-bucket American gyms and more professional fights; Taylor’s opponents, during the last year or so, have been better than the duo Prograis beat, but it is Prograis carrying the expectation and Prograis is the one getting mentioned for big fights next year.

“I’m not sure who he thinks he is?” said Taylor, who had called him a “wanker” and told him to take his sunglasses off. “He is acting like it is his city, but he needs all those guys around him, shouting and building him up. I don’t need anybody to tell me that I will win by knockout.”

There has been too much talk of knockout power, of the fight ending before the final bell, but the chatter is possibly just a convenient illusion to conceal the real intent; when they have each met tough men, good men in boxing circles, they have both been stretched the full twelve rounds and that outcome looks possible again.

“He has a real problem,” continued Taylor. “He just thinks it will be an easy fight for him and that’s a bad mistake to make at any level in boxing - at this level, the highest level, it is crazy. I know just hard it will be, I prepared that way.” It is an astute observation.

Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis pose after the press conference (Action Images via Reuters)

Prograis is physically smaller, trailing on all measures, but he has sensibly dismissed the traditional tale-of-the-tape and the often misleading figures it measures. There is no way of equating the dangers of weight loss, the threat of complacency or any of the other factors that really decide fights; nobody cares any longer about a boxer’s chest dimensions, the size of his fist.

“This fight will not be won because he’s taller,” insisted Prograis. “It will be won because he’s been hurt before and I will hurt him again - I told him that. That’s the difference, I will get to him and finish him. That’s the story of this fight.”

The fight will be won and lost by the boxer with the smartest plan once the first bell sounds, the adrenaline flows and they instantly display their nerves; it is telling that nobody expects Prograis to panic, which might well be a blind spot by people sitting in judgement and prediction.

Taylor will be calm in any crisis, Prograis has never been near a crisis in his boxing life - his other life has been chaotic with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 forcing him to flee New Orleans - and this is a fight that will easily drag the pair across the line of their previous sacrifices. The winner, in what is a rare 50-50 fight at this level, will not just have to be the smartest, he will also have to be the one that can respond to the crisis - this is a fight where desire will triumph. Taylor can win on points in a classic.