Prograis: Raleigh's wildness could upset Ryan Garcia

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

Sparring session flashback

The former two-time 140 lb Prograis champion believes that because Raleigh (16-2, 13 KOs) is so wild with his striking and is hard to time, he can catch Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) with something. Regis points to a sparring between Garcia and Rolando from 2018 to support his argument for Raleigh's victory.

The sparring has nothing to do with the actual fight, especially when it happened seven years ago when Garcia was thin and still a teenager. Rolly has looked like a below average fighter throughout his career and perhaps should have had an additional two losses on his resume from his fights against Ismael Barroso and Jackson Marinez which would have made his true record 14-4.

“Rolly and Ryan, I saw the sparring tape. I think it's not really a predictable fight because they're both so wild and can throw punches,” Regis told Progress Mill City Boxingdiscussing the May 2 fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando “Rolly” Romero in New York's Times Square.

“Ryan can hit big and Rollie can hit big. I would say Ryan, but I don't know if you watched the sparring. Roli was hitting on Ryan in the gym. Raleigh is wild. and sometimes it's hard to find the time to fight someone who's so wild.

“So I'd go with Ryan, but we're not counting Raleigh out until I hit him with something. I prefer Ryan because he has more experience in big fights and things like that. I prefer him because he is a bigger star. He has that hook, but at the same time, Rollie is wild and can catch him with something. So I would prefer Ryan, but it will be an interesting fight for sure,” said Prograis.

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

Raleigh would likely lose to Ryan's previous opponents, Oscar Duarte, Devin Haney and Javier Fortuna. Garcia would be better off fighting Duarte in a rematch rather than using the recently knocked out Romero as his opponent because there is no gain in fighting him now, nor has there ever been. It is surprising that Turki Al-Sheikh did not veto this choice of opponent. If it were me, I'd say, “No, Raleigh's not right for the main event on the Times Square card. He doesn't even deserve to be on the undercard.

Haynie's rematch is inevitable

“Yeah, I get it,” Progress said when asked if he favored Garcia in the rematch with Devin Haynie. “If Devin can beat Ryan, he can show his greatness. If you can beat someone who beat you like that (that's special). When you take all the supplements he (Ryan) was on and we take them off (the rematch could be different).”

It's not clear that Garcia will beat Devin Haney in the rematch. For 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 Haynie can't take a hard punch.

Devin's habitat of constant clinches that he developed from his fight against Jorge Linares came back to bite him in the back in this fight because it put him right in the firing line for Ryan's short left hooks. Haney should have seen that from watching Garcia's training camp tape and made sure he wasn't trying to hold.

Unfortunately, the over-wielding that Devin does has become too ingrained for him to stop using it. If you take that away from Haynie, it will break him, leaving him as a broken, vulnerable fighter, fodder for just about anyone from 135 to 147. His entire game is built around striking and holding now.

“We don't know if it was true or not, but the damn thing still happened (Garcia tested positive for Ostarine),” Regis said. “We can say whatever was in his system, but this fight still happened. Still dropped it, hurt it and dropped it three times. If he (Haney) can come out of that and win, that will really show his greatness.

Regis for Haney vs. Ramirez

“It's possible (Kingry knocks out Haney in the rematch) but we have to see what Devin is up to. First we have to see what he does with (Jose) Ramirez. In boxing, anything is possible,” Progress said.

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