“Boxing Tonight” is i‘s weekly look ahead to the Saturday night action in the UK and beyond, with the details on how to watch and what to look out for. For exclusive interviews and boxing news straight to your inbox, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
Nobody seriously believes Teofimo Lopez has retired at the age of 25 – least of all Regis Prograis.
Prograis defends his WBC super-lightweight belt against Danielito Zorrilla in New Orleans tonight, his first outing since becoming a two-time world champion after stopping Jose Zepeda.
Zorrilla is a formidable, quick-moving Puerto Rican with WBO, NABO and WBO inter-continental titles to his name, though Prograis is likely to prove too powerful for him, particularly with so little time to prepare. Liam Paro was the original challenger before withdrawing through injury last month.
The most intriguing aspect of this fight is whether Prograis goes about it the same way as he dispatched Zepeda – initially trying to out-box him before unleashing an onslaught that stopped his opponent in the sixth round.
Get Zorrilla out the way and Lopez could be next, despite his claims that he has hung up his gloves after his shock victory over Josh Taylor. Having beaten Vasyl Lomachenko in 2021, Lopez’s reign as lightweight champion lasted just one bout, which he promptly lost to George Kambosos Jr – but now he is a two-weight champion, Prograis is eyeing a unification bout.
“I wanted Josh to win so I could fight him again, but now, I just have got to fight Teofimo,” said Prograis.
“I know he’s saying he’s retired but I hope he is not. I think that would be a huge fight and we must do it.
“There was a video in 2018 with me, Teo and his dad, and his dad was saying ‘you and my son are going to fight one day, and you are going to be rich’. So, he called it a long time ago and its still true right to this day, more than ever now.
“I always thought that Teo is a great fighter. When he was sat 135, I thought he was the best of the lot. He’s explosive, he’s got power, he can box.”
Prograis is also keen to fight Jack Catterall, who has begun to steadily rebuild after the controversy of his defeat to Taylor. Those prospects will have to wait, however, until Zorrilla has been beaten. Prograis is painfully aware of the dangers of writing him off.
“It’s not hard to focus because when you fight someone that people say is lesser than you, those are the dangerous fights and the hard ones as you don’t know what they have got, and you need to perform against them,” he said.
“People do pull off upsets.”
Sign up for i‘s boxing newsletter
“Boxing Tonight” is i‘s weekly look ahead to Saturday night’s fights – and it’s now a free weekly newsletter. Every week, we’ll be talking about the biggest fights in the UK, US and beyond, with exclusive interviews and analysis from i‘s boxing writers.
You can sign up here to receive it straight to your inbox on Saturday mornings.
Prograis vs Zorrilla
- Date: Saturday 17 June
- Venue: Smoothie King Centre, New Orleans, USA
- Fight time: Ring walks for the main event are expected around 4am (UK time)
- TV/live stream: DAZN, where subscriptions start from £9.99 a month. While it’s pay-per-view in the US and Canada UK fans will have it included in their monthly package
- Undercard highlights: Not an awful lot, but Ramla Ali and Julissa Alejandra Guzman could be a decent scrap at super-bantamweight
- i predicts: Prograis to win by stoppage in the middle rounds
Full card:
- Regis Prograis vs. Danielito Zorrilla
- Shakhram Giyasov vs Harold Calderon
- Ramla Ali vs Julissa Alejandra Guzman
- Aaron Aponte vs Xavier Madrid
- Ginny Fuchs vs Indeya Smith
- Jeremy Hill vs Mark Davis
- Criztec Bazaldua vs Elroy Fruto
Frazer Clarke: ‘Boxing is my safe place’
This is an extract of i‘s interview with heavyweight Frazer Clarke – you can read it in full here
When i sat down with Frazer Clarke earlier this week, he had just found out that he was about to headline last night’s card at York Hall, a dream for every British boxer.
That, in itself, would be a formidable enough prospect even if the opponent had not been the fearless Mariusz Wach, the Polish heavyweight who has challenged Wladimir Klitschko for world titles and fought everyone from Dillian Whyte to Alexander Povetkin.
There was also added meaning for Clarke fighting in the capital for the first time. When he stepped into the ring, he was be just a few miles from the scene of one of the most harrowing experiences of his life. “These life experiences, ultimately they create character – they pull out the character inside of you,” he says. “Nothing hits as hard as life – I know that sounds cliché but it’s true.”
Between 2016 and 2017, Clarke had two near-death experiences. He was stabbed in an unprovoked attack on a night out in his hometown of Burton-on-Trent celebrating the birth of his daughter. A year later, he survived the Westminster terror attack and witnessed the death of policeman Keith Palmer close to the Houses of Parliament.
“All those experiences, I have to rely on them at times,” Clarke tells i. “Because nothing in boxing can be as bad as being stabbed in the neck and the leg and having your family crying over you in a hospital bed.
“Nothing can bring them horrible feelings. This is a sport, something I love doing. The Westminster thing was a scary time and nothing can compare to that – not in the sport of boxing. It’s a beautiful place compared to where I was then. I feel like I’ve been hardened by the life I’ve had and I take a lot of positives from situations I’ve been in.”
Clarke acknowledges that like all fighters, he is risking his life again every time he steps through the ropes – but it doesn’t feel that way. Boxing is an oasis of calm compared to streets ravaged by knife crime, a cause he remains passionate about and sees his sport as a haven where youngsters can be steered away from wrongdoing.
“The boxing gym has been a safe place for me since I was 11 or 12 years old. It’s the place I can go and express myself and be myself and learn something.
“It can be an absolute life-saver,” he adds. “It took a small overweight kid from Burton all around the world, representing my country and I won an Olympic medal – it changed my life, and I know it does for a lot of other people.”
Any other business
A Dmitry Bivol rematch and Jermall Charlo are both possibilities for Canelo Alvarez’s next fight.
Eddie Hearn has thrown Anthony Joshua’s rematch with Dillian Whyte into doubt. Hearn revealed in an interview that Whyte had declined an offer and that money was proving an issue.
John Gotti III – grandson of John Gotti, the former head of the Gambino crime family – has been banned for six months for provoking a brawl at the end of his exhibition match against Floyd Mayweather.
