Regis Prograis is not ruling out the possibility of former WBA light welterweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero beating Ryan Garcia in their fight next May in New York’s Times Square.
Sparring Session Flashback
Former two-time 140-lb champion Prograis feels that with Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) so wild with his punches and hard to time, he can catch Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) with something . Regis points to a sparring session between Garcia and Rolando from 2018 to support his case that Rolly won.
Sparring has nothing to do with a real fight, especially when it took place seven years ago when Garcia was skinny and still a teenager. Rolly has looked like a below average fighter throughout his career, and he should probably have two more losses on his resume from his fights against Ismael Barroso and Jackson Marinez, which would make his true record 14-4.
“Rolly and Ryan, I saw the sparring footage. I think it’s actually not a predictable fight because both of them are so wild, and both of them can land punches,” said Regis Prograis. MillCity Boxingdiscussing the May 2nd fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero at Times Square in New York.
“Ryan can get big shots, and Rolly can get big punches. I would say Ryan, but I don’t know if you’ve seen the sparring. Rolly was beating Ryan in the gym. Rolly is wild. and sometimes it is hard to stop and fight against someone who is so wild.
“So, I’ll go with Ryan, but I’m not counting Rolly out until I hit him with something. I favor Ryan because he has more big fight experience and stuff like that. I favor him because he is a bigger star. He has that angle, but at the same time Rolly is wild and could catch him with something. So, I’ll just favor Ryan, but it will be an interesting fight for sure,” said Prograis.
Regis gives Rolly Romero way too much credit for a sparring session that took place seven years ago in 2018. Ryan was 19 at the time and Rolly 22. Kingry is now 26, and much bigger than he was during that sparring session. The way Rolly chased Garcia during that sparring would get him knocked out today because he would get nailed by one of his left hooks.
Rolly will likely lose to Ryan’s previous opponents, Oscar Duarte, Devin Haney and Javier Fortuna. Garcia would be better off fighting a rematch with Duarte rather than using the recently eliminated Romero as his opponent because there is no upside to fighting him now and never has been. It is surprising that Turki Al-Sheikh does not veto this choice of opponent. If it were me, I’d say, ‘No, Rolly is unfit to main event the Times Square card. He’s not worthy of even being on the undercard.’
Haney Rematch Inevitable
“Yeah, I do,” Prograis said when asked if he favored Garcia in a rematch with Devin Haney. “If Devin can beat Ryan, he can show his greatness. If you can beat someone who beats you like that (that’s special). When you take all the supplements he (Ryan) took, and we take it out (the rematch could be different).
It’s a no-brainer that Garcia will beat Devin Haney in the rematch. For those fans who cling to the belief that the only reason Ryan won was because he tested positive for Ostarine, they are kidding themselves. He won because he was the better fighter, and Haney can’t take a hard hit.
Devin’s habitat of constant clinch that he developed from his fight against Jorge Linares came back to bite him in the back in this fight as it put him right in the line of fire for Ryan’s short left hooks. Haney must have seen it by looking at the tape. van Garcia in training camp, and made sure he didn’t try to keep.
Unfortunately, the excessive holding that Devin does has become too ingrained for him to stop using. If you take that away from Haney, it will break him, and leave him as a broken, vulnerable fighter, a match for almost anyone from 135 to 147. His entire game is built around jabbing and holding now.
“We don’t know if it was true or not, but the s*** still happened (Garcia tests positive for Ostarine),” Regis said. “We can say whatever was in his system, but that fight still happened. He still dropped him, hurt him and dropped him three times. If he (Haney) can come out of it and win, it will really show his greatness.
Regis on Haney vs. Ramirez
“It’s possible (Kingry knocks out Haney in rematch), but we have to see what Devin is up to. We have to see what he does with (Jose) Ramirez first. In boxing, anything is possible,” said Prograis.
Regis is right about fans needing to see if Haney wins his fight against former WBA and WBO light welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) on May 2 because he will likely lose to him. Turki said nothing about Haney needing to win his fight against Ramirez in order to get the rematch with Kingry in October. So it probably won’t matter if Haney gets beat by Ramirez. It’s a throwaway fight.
