Josh Taylor is the man at 140

To me this is a similar situation to Wilder and Joshua, wherein I like both Taylor and Prograis, but I just like Taylor that little bit more.

Josh Taylor appeals to me a lot because he has some good boxing fundamentals and skills, he has speed which I love in fighters. Furthermore, he has the 'fighting guts' which I love, the warrior spirit of the Scots is undying in this gadgey. So he has my support.

 

Still very green though IMO.Should of boxed Postal instead of trading blows.

 

Postal technically better, longer reach with distance control, good feet and very good jab. He fought the right fight, and the fight Prograis would need to fight to beat Postal too.

 

I’m more convinced than ever Taylor beats Prograis. But I’m on the fence now with Ramírez as he’s improving and as stated before, underrated.

 

How do you see the fight going? I'm just genuinely curious, for me it's close to 50-50 with Prograis being a slight favourite based on my eye test. But I do know that you've been spot on with Taylor in the past, and I'd really like to hear your reasoning.

 

Another moron confusing race and nationality.

 

Rougarou is gonna beat that ass.

 

Not the best analogy unless he fights a puncher at 154lb before the Regis fight.

Prograis wins for me though. Looks a quality fighter and Taylor gets tagged a bit too much

 

The scorecards were terrible and showed no respect for Postal

 

Completely agree but I had Taylor by 3-4 rounds, he won, not Crawford level but for 13th fight he done the job. The point was though that he couldn’t keep a low output vs Postal, IMO he would have been beaten. Only Crawford could have played cat and mouse with Postal. So although Taylor was a little green, he fought the right way and closed the show well by increasing punch output from round 9 onwards, it sealed the fight with the knockdown.

 

Many reasons KiwiMan. I’ve re watched the Baranchyk fight numerous times but something I like to do a lot, Prograis Flanagan, Prograis Relikh etc is watch fights 2-3 times at half speed. And I had Taylor coasting the Baranchyk fight. He hardly takes a solid shot until round 5, I had him up 4-0 at that point.

His defence isn’t overrated, it’s underrated. He controlled Baranchyk beautifully with feints, level changes, soft jabs and use of feet. Compubox had Taylor finish the fight with 49.5% of power punches landed to Ivan’s 26.6%. At world level, both offence and defensive stats are very, very good. Postal’s 30.1% power punches landed is the most % Taylor has been hit with, Ivan second and Martin a distant third. In all of Taylor’s fights, he lands over 40% of power punches and lands the higher % of jabs. He actually landed 2 more than Postal, he just threw a lot less.

For context. Regis’ last two fights have had excellent stats. He landed 49.7% of power punches vs Flanagan, and 47.7% vs Relikh whilst also taking very little in return. Two points though. His punch out put, outside of the jab has been very low in those two fights. He very much likes to use high jab out out to control distance and pace, countering with single shots. In the Flanagan fight, with the exception of round 8, he never threw any more than 11 power punches per round, he threw 43 in round 8 when he dropped Turbo.

But when he’s fought at a higher we output. Prograis remains accurate but gets touched a lot more. In fights with Abel Ramos 28% power punches taken, Amos Cowart 33.5% and Jose Velasquez 26.6% power shots landed on him.

His overall punch connect rate is continually lower than Taylor. In Taylor’s last three fights, he either hits 30% or goes close in all round punch connect %. In comparison Regis only hits that figure vs Velasquez, against his better opposition he hits 22% and 19%. I believe that’s with Taylor beating better opposition.

That’s the stats. But Regis like to use the lead hand and a throwaway right hook to set up the left hand. The rear hand, like Taylor, can be wide and pre meditated. Will that and a high output of jabs keep Taylor off him? Not in my opinion, JT has very good positioning and he’ll put pressure on Regis, look to slip jabs and counter and move inside.

On the inside, Prograis is not as explosive or dynamic as Baranchyk, he throws shoulder/arm punches to try land one solid shot. Taylor is smoother and more compact. Their right hooks aren’t close. Prograis may have beer left hand but it’s a lot close than the right hook is. Taylor will have size and reach. Taylor is excellent at taking the jab away.

Taylor IMHO is a more complete version of Prograis. I read a lot the Prograis is complete without flaw, doesn’t lose rounds and looks elite at most things he does in the ring. I disagree. He has lots of flaws and mistakes. I feel come fight night, one of the two will surprise fans with their skill set, I think that fighter will be Taylor.

This is sloppy but written literally 20 mins before work. I watched Taylor-Ivan and Prograis-Relikh last night, again to be more impressed with Taylor. Ivan stops Relikh BTW, I have no doubt about that. Taylor’s performance vs Ivan was way better than credited for, people were expecting Juan Marquez level countering to stop Ivan in his tracks, fight was never going to go that way.

 

The Regis fight will tell a lot about both. I am not convinced Taylor is all that good.

 

Mark me down for prograis ud

 

Very close fight here, both too quality operators, Taylor by SD.

 

I'm not convinced Taylor beats prograis but like you I've thought a lot about this fight and to me Taylor should be the favourite. Regis hasn't beaten a genuine world level 140 pounder imo.postol and I believe baranchyk are a whole level better wins than indongo and relikh.its a huge step up in class for Regis here if we're saying relikh is his best win.for perspective I think Miguel Vazquez would give relikh kittens even now.to me Regis will have to be bud Crawford special to beat josh.