In a conversation with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV, former junior welterweight titleholder Regis Prograis talks about his upcoming shot at a vacant belt against Jose Zepeda while also touching on yet another fighter testing positive for banned substances.
Prograis, who admits that he doesn’t know much about Conor Benn, does find it curious how Benn went from being perceived as not very good to just destroying opponents, and while he hates to think that cheating is just part and parcel with boxing, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Check out some excerpts with the full video interview in the video above.
Prograis on Conor Benn’s failed drug test which lead to a postponement of his bout with Chris Eubank Jr
“It’s terrible, bro. Listen, my coach told me this a long time ago, ‘everybody cheats.’ I was like ‘I don’t believe that.’ Like for me it’s so hard to — ‘cause I never ever thought about doing something, none of that stuff. I’m even scared to take certain protein shakes and stuff. People give me certain food I’m like, ‘bro I don’t want to take that, I’m scared something come up in my blood.’
“From what I understand now, I’m starting to learn more, people saying it’s a part of the sport, and it’s sad to even say that. I don’t know about Conor Benn too much but one thing I heard about him, they said…’he’s not that good’ and now he’s just destroying people. He knocked out Chris van Heerden bad, he knocked out Algieri — I mean he’s really destroying these guys and these guys, especially Chris van Heerden, I know Chris, I’ve sparred Chris, and he fought Errol, he fought Ennis, and they didn’t do him like that and Conor Benn just knocked him out cold…it’s just another black eye for the sport.”
On if he now believes cheating is a pervasive issue in boxing
“I can’t say I feel people are (cheating) but my coach been around this game a long time, over 30 years, and he says ‘look, everybody cheating.’ I’m a historian, I really love boxing, and so it’s hard for me to imagine some of my favorite fighters to be cheaters, and he said some of my favorite fighters was cheaters. It just makes me rethink my whole perception of boxing, it’s just ruined if one of the legends I looked up to is cheating. It kind of just destroy it for me.”
On if he’s expecting a all-out war with Zepeda
“It depends what goes on in there. Lately, my last three fights I’ve haven’t got touched. Now I’m not gonna say — the last three guys wasn’t on Zepeda’s level, I admit that myself. But I haven’t been touched. When I box, I don’t get touched at all so, it depends. At the end of the day I’m a dog too and I do lock down and I do want to fight.”