With a combined 68 years and five losses in six fights between Regis Prograis and Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, the expectations for Saturday’s junior welterweight co-feature at Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago hovered somewhere between ho-hum and zero.
Sometimes, blissfully, we get it wrong.
Instead of halfheartedly cashing paychecks or plodding like dinosaurs around the ring, Prograis, 36, and Diaz, 32, battled valiantly, flashing world-caliber skill and channeling the energy of men a decade younger. In a bloody, balance-compromising matchup of southpaws and former titleholders, it was Prograis who came away after 10 rounds with a unanimous decision, by scores of 98-92 and 96-94 (twice).
But Chicago fans, who have been all but starved of boxing shows that rank above club level in recent years, likely couldn’t have given a day-old Mr. Beef about the judges’ opinion after Prograis-Diaz. It was a treat just to be in the building.
Prograis, a 36-year-old former junior welterweight belt holder from New Orleans, came out painting Diaz with jabs and right hooks to the body right away, mostly stay-busy stuff – but which also gave Diaz trouble getting around to land his own offense. Coming out of a clinch, however, Diaz winged Prograis’ chin with an uppercut and a follow-up left hand. Suddenly, Prograis was doing the stinky leg, prompting Diaz to pounce. Already in trouble, Prograis alternately attempted to fire back and tie up, but Diaz – who connected with 29 power shots in all in the round – staggered him once more before the bell saved the fighter who entered as a nearly 10-to-1 favorite.
“It’s kind of like, when you walk in the ring, you think about it all week, you’re kind of nervous about the fight,” Prograis said, “and then you get that first punch, and that’s kind of what he did to me.”
Awoken but still unsteady to start the second, Prograis settled in and even seemed to win the round with his jab. As the clappers sounded to signal the closing of the round, though, the fighters came out of a clinch – Diaz might have clipped him with a short left hand on the way in – and Prograis was on boozy legs yet again.
His resilience, if not his balance, was impressive. Prograis came out jabbing in the third, splitting the guard to snap Diaz’s head back. Diaz, a 32-year-old former lightweight titleholder from just outside Los Angeles, then soaked up a looping left hook to the body and cranked up the dial on his own offense, landing several flush left hands upstairs.
The fighters traded in the fourth, with Prograis landing at a higher volume and opening a bloody cut under Diaz’s left eye, which referee Ben Rodriguez quickly ruled an accidental head-butt. (The cut appeared to come in a clinch, when Diaz punched Prograis’s head toward his own, sending temple bashing into eye.) After the ringside doctor cleaned up the mess, gave the cut a quick examination and briefly conferred with Rodriguez, the fighters were at each other again.
Prograis found a groove in the fifth, circling the ring, poking through Diaz’s guard and occasionally whipping in a stinging left hand to bring the blood flowing freely again from Diaz’s cut. But Prograis was also fighting with his hands down, allowing Diaz to corkscrew home big lefts on his opponents’ chin.
Between rounds, the doctor again assessed Diaz’s cut, holding up his hand in the periphery of each eye and instructing the fighter to tell him how many fingers he was holding up. On two occasions, Diaz guessed wrong from his left eye – but was allowed to fight on.
That initially appeared to be a bad decision, as Prograis pumped his jab relentlessly and connected with two-hand flurries over the first half of the sixth. But Diaz fought back, again wobbling Prograis with a counter left and a dazzling right hook, seemingly pouring back on his opponent what he had absorbed from him earlier in the round. More exchanges, more uneasy legs from Prograis and two more Diaz right hands clubbing Prograis’ noggin before the bell left the Chicago crowd roaring for more.
The following rounds offered more top-shelf quality. A sparking right hand from Prograis. A right hook from Diaz, plus a big left hand to the body. Varied combinations from both men as each labored under duress – Prograis unbalanced and sucking wind, Diaz bloody from his temple to his trunks.
Prograis was hit with double right hooks, then two more clean single hooks, in the ninth – and ate it all. He shot back with his jab, which, long and accurate as it was, Diaz would eventually find ways inside to land more damage of his own. Both fighters dipped into reserves no one would have guessed they had left – and reached back perhaps even further, borrowing from their bygone primes. Hyperbole aside, it was something to behold. Together, they spun gold and gifted boxing fans the sort of moment they so seldom receive but that makes slogging through the sport’s indignities somehow worth all that mud on the boots.
Prograis and Diaz fought the 10th with the same energy they had to begin the fight, the former shoveling his jab and the latter swinging right hooks and overhand lefts. Diaz, never a knockout puncher, didn’t quite have the power to finish Prograis. But he was as effective Saturday as he has been in a fight in years. He is undoubtedly in his career twilight, but Diaz, 34-8 (15 KOs), staved off the end with this performance.
“I’m not gonna lie: JoJo was way tougher than I thought,” Prograis said.
“Man, JoJo is for real.”
Oddly, Prograis, 30-3 (24 KOs), who was coming off sound defeats at the hands of Jack Catterall and Devin Haney, is in a more dangerous kind of limbo than his fallen foe. For a fighter who has never been stopped to have been buzzed so often by Diaz is a red flag – and one that should be carefully considered given that the win likely sets Prograis up for a much more dangerous fight.
Earlier in the card, former U.S. Olympian Joshua Edwards put away Cayman Audie almost instantly, logging a first-round stoppage.
The chasm in class was evident immediately, as Audie rushed from his corner to windmill wildly and Edwards took only a moment to pick his spot, stuffing a counter right hand under Audie’s chin that essentially shoved him to the canvas.
Audie picked himself up, but a grinning Edwards knew his opponent didn’t have much longer. Edwards waited, again picking his counter shot – this time a straight right hand and a left uppercut to the chin that sent Audie sprawling. Referee Ben Rodriguez wasted no time interceding to end it.
“I got pinpoint accuracy, and once I see an opening, I immediately attack that opening,” said Houston’s Edwards, 4-0 (4 KOs), afterwards. “I don’t like to wait around.”
Audie, of Hinckley, Minnesota, slipped to 4-2 (2 KOs).
Cruiserweight Tristan Kalkreuth stopped late replacement Devonte Williams for an unsatisfying third-round TKO.
Although Williams managed a couple of eye-catching shots and workmanlike exchanges in the first, Kalkreuth’s jab, reach and power began to show. Late in the second, a left hook to the body from Kalkreuth crumpled Williams to the canvas, setting off an odd series of events.
With Williams on his back and seemingly in no shape to go on, Kalkreuth celebrated – and even got off a backflip for the crowd. Williams suddenly scrambled to his feet, walked along the ropes to his corner, turning his back to referee Joel Campuzano Jnr, and even removed his mouthpiece. After a puzzling moment, Campuzano allowed the fight to continue. Williams survived the round and even connected with a right hand before the bell, then quit on his stool in between rounds.
Although hardly his most impressive work, Kalkreuth – from Carollton, Texas, and now fighting out of Las Vegas – improved to 16-1 (11 KOs).
Williams, of Houston, dropped to 13-3 (6 KOs).
Heavy-handed light heavyweight Yair Gallardo remained undefeated after easily outpointing veteran Quinton Rankin in an eight-rounder.
Gallardo pounded away at Rankin early, and he nearly finished his work in the fourth when Rankin covered up – and never came out of his shell – under a near-constant firestorm of uppercuts and body blows.
Rankin somehow weathered it, and even bounced back by working behind his jab in the fifth. But in the first minute of the sixth, a Gallardo left hand dug under Rankin’s ribs that sank him to a knee. Although Gallardo seemed to ease off the accelerator after the knockdown, Rankin wasn’t the same after the knockdown.
Gallardo won on scores of 80-71 and 79-72 (twice), landing 144 total punches (36 percent connect rate) to Rankin’s 69 (25 percent).
The result ended a four-fight knockout streak for Mexico’s Gallardo, who nevertheless moved to 10-0 (8 KOs).
Rankin, originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, fell to 21-10-2 (16 KOs).
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
