By David Finger
Although it has been less than three years since former WBC super lightweight champion Regis Prograis, 148.1, lost his belt to undefeated Devin Haney, he was very much seen as the aging veteran looking to dip into the well one more time as he sought to derail the ascent of the red hot Brit Conor Benn, 149.5, in a special feature on the undercard of the Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov clash in Tottenham, England. At 37, Prograis was eight years older than Benn, but there was also no question that he had a deep bag of veteran tricks to trouble Benn.
And by the midway point of the fight there was a very real possibility that he might have just enough left in the tank to do just that. But youth prevailed as Benn dug deep and dominated the last five rounds behind a solid body attack.
Early on it looked like Prograis was in for a short night. A hard right hand badly buckled Prograis in the closing seconds of the opening round. Prograis continued to take solid shots in round two and three but a clash of heads in round four opened up a cut over the left eye of Benn, and it clearly bothered the younger man, allowing Prograis to capture the round. Prograis looked solid in round five as well and fans ringside started to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the veteran had weathered the worst of it and could perhaps score the upset. Another cut over the right eye of Benn emerged and it started to feel like Prograis had the wind in his sails.
But Benn made the adjustment he needed to make and started to pound the body of Prograis. From round six on it was all Conor Benn, as he swept the last five rounds en route to a 98-92 decision victory on all three judges scorecards. With the win Benn improves to 25-1, 14 KOs while Prograis slips to 30-4, 24 KOs.
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