ULTIMATELY, Dereck Chisora and David Price are bringing eyes to the card but the main event is the final of the light welterweight World Boxing Super Series tournament between Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor.
The tournament started on the tail end of 2018 and contained eight fighters including the Belarusians, Kiryl Relikh and Ivan Baranchyk—respectively the WBA and IBF champions. Prograis beat Relikh in the course of the tournament while Taylor beat Baranchyk, meaning that the tournament final is for both belts and level footing with Jose Ramirez, who was not in the tournament and owns the other two major belts.
Prograis is considered by many to be the bigger puncher and has blistering speed to go with it. As a southpaw his wide left to the body is a wicked dig and he is known for bunching power punches and scoring more knockouts than most men of his weight are capable of. But Prograis is hardly lacking for science—his footwork is smooth and his head movement is cute. In his first fight of the tournament Prograis met fellow southpaw, Terry Flanagan and put on a masterclass with his jab. In the semi-final Prograis took Kyril Relikh’s title with brutal body punching.
Josh Taylor is another southpaw and his fights in the tournament have been all action. In some of his best showings he gives off whiffs of Josh Warrington, throwing with good volume and working well from the infight, with his head on his opponent. Like Warrington he tends to get a little wide with his punches when he gets in tight—using that tap, tap, tap, boom style of infighting—and you will often see his opponents duck under his legitimate swings because he loads up on them.
That being said, he seems to be well prepared for this—his controversial knockout of Ryan Martin in the quarter final came as Martin ducked under a wide blow amid a torrent of activity, and Taylor cracked him—perhaps illegally—in the back of the head as he came up. But Taylor isn’t a bad outfighter by any means and has won fights from range before. Often Taylor will switch to orthodox stance while outfighting to land a good left jab and then cut an angle as he switches back to hit from southpaw at a closer range.
The match up between the two could play out in a number of interesting ways. The meeting of southpaws tends to open up more opportunities to jab, meaning that Prograis can get to work as he did against Flanagan. But Taylor likes to square up and work in up-and-down flurries and his basic style doesn’t seem that much affected by whether the opponent stands southpaw or orthodox. Either way, Prograis is a well noted finisher while Taylor is tough and willing to the point that it gets him into trouble sometimes—you are almost guaranteed a good scrap.
Josh Taylor (29/20)
Draw (20/1)
Regis Prograis (13/25)
