Prograis: Rolly’s wildness could upset Ryan Garcia

Regis Prograis is not ruling out the possibility of former WBA light heavyweight champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero beating Ryan Garcia in their fight in New York’s Times Square next May.

Sparring Session Flashback

Former two-time 140lb champion Prograis feels he could catch Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) with something, given that Rolly (16-2, 13 KOs) is so wild with his punches and has a hard time time. Regis points to a sparring match between Garcia and Rolando from 2018 to support his case for a Rolly win.

Sparring has nothing to do with a real fight, especially when it happened seven years ago when Garcia was skinny as a fence and still a teenager. Rolly has looked like a below average fighter throughout his career, and should probably have two more losses on his resume than fights against Ismael Barros and Jackson Marinez, which would make his true record 14-4.

“Rolly and Ryan, I saw the sparring video. I don’t think it’s really a predictable fight because they’re both so wild and they can both throw punches,” Regis Prograis told MillCity boxingdiscussing the May 2 fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in Times Square, New York.

“Ryan can throw big shots and Rolly can throw big shots. I would say Ryan, but I don’t know if you’ve seen the sparring. Rolly beat up Ryan in the gym. Rolly is wild. and sometimes it’s hard to time and fight someone who is so wild.

“So I’d go with Ryan, but I’m not counting Rolly out until I hit him with something. I favor Ryan because he has more experience in big fights and things like that. I love him because he is a bigger star. He has that hook, but at the same time Rolly is wild and could catch him with something. So I would just favor Ryan, but it will be an interesting fight for sure,” said Prograis.

Regis gives Rolly Romero too much credit for the sparring that happened seven years ago in 2018. Ryan was 19 at the time and Rolly was 22. Kingry is now 26 and much bigger than he was during that sparring. The way Rolly chased Garcia during that sparring session would have knocked him out today because he would have been nailed by one of his left hooks.

Rolly would likely lose to Ryan’s former opponents, Oscar Duarte, Devin Haney and Javier Fortuna. Garcia would be better off fighting Duarte in a rematch than using the recently knocked out Romero as his opponent because there is no point in fighting him now and never has been. It is surprising that Turki Al-Sheikh did not veto this choice of opponent. If it were me, I’d say, ‘No, Rolly isn’t fit to main event a Times Square card. He’s not even worth being on the undercard.’

Haney rematch inevitable

“Yeah, I do,” Prograis said when asked if he favors Garcia in a rematch with Devin Haney. “If Devin can beat Ryan, he can show his greatness. If you can beat someone, he beat you like that (that’s special). When you take all the supplements he (Ryan) was taking and we take that out (the rematch could be different).”

It’s a no-brainer that Garcia will beat Devin Haney in the rematch. For fans who believe 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 punch.

Devin’s constant clinch environment that he developed against Jorge Linares came back to bite him in the rear in this fight, as it put him right in the firing line for Ryan’s short left hooks. Haney should have seen it watching tape of Garcia in training camp, and made sure he didn’t try to keep it.

Unfortunately, the over-the-top attitude that Devin has has become too ingrained for him to stop using. If you take that away from Haney, it would break him, leaving him as a broken, vulnerable fighter, fodder for almost anyone from 135 to 147. His entire game is built around striking and holding.

“We don’t know if it’s true or not, but the s*** still happened (Garcia testing positive for Ostarine),” Regis said. “We can say whatever was in his system, but that fight still happened. He dropped it though, hurt it and dropped it three times. If he (Haney) can come out of that and win it would really show his greatness.

Regis on Haney v. Ramirez

“It’s possible (Kingry knocks out Haney in the rematch), but we have to see where Devin is at. First we have to see what they do with (Jose) Ramirez. Everything is possible in boxing,” said Prograis.

Regis is right about fans needing to see if Haney wins a fight against former WBA and WBO welterweight champion Jose Ramirez (29-2, 18 KOs) on May 2 because he will likely lose to him. Turki said nothing about Haney having to win the Ramirez fight to get the Kingry rematch in October. So it’s very likely that it won’t matter if Haney gets beat by Ramirez. It’s a two-way fight.