Devin Haney showed his ring generalship and gave Regis Prograis a boxing lesson in their fight this weekend. Let’s take a look at the…

IMAGO/ZUMA Wire/Mikael Ona | Devin Haney knocks Regis Prograis off-balance in their fight., IMAGO

is was supposed to be at least close to an even fight. Haney was in his hometown, but challenging a champion for his belt in what was, for him, a new weight class. Yes, Haney was still visibly the bigger man, but he’d been rocked on multiple occasions at 135lbs. Including by a past-his-best Jorge Linares and a much smaller Vasyl Lomachenko. Whether he was going to be able to take the shots of a power puncher like Prograis, or use his usual clinch tactics if he got in trouble, was open to question.

As it turned out: not a problem at all. It wasn’t so much that Haney proved he had the chin and strength to deal with it- it’s that he outboxed Prograis so thoroughly that neither question really came up at all. Let’s take a look at how.

aney beat Regis Prograis

Let’s get one thing out of the way- Devin Haney has often been seen, not unfairly, as a jab-and-grab fighter. Skillful, yes, but often winning fights by poking out his sharp jab to score points, then leaning in and clinching when opponents worked their way past it. Effective, but not always pretty.

None of that here. Yes, the jab was a major feature, but the clinching not at all. He used his footwork, which looked much smoother than it often has in the past- but even there he was simply circling – mostly to his right, to avoid Prograis’ left hand- to hold the center of the ring and keep Prograis at bay, rarely disengaging and stepping back entirely.
On this occasion, a straight right from Devin Haney intercepts Prograis as he tries to throw his own left hand. IMAGO/ZUMA Wire/Mikael Ona | Devin Haney catches Regis Prograis throwing in their contest., IMAGO
Even more importantly, he tamed Prograis’ aggression with his own punches. The former champion, at his best, is a hard-charging, aggressive power puncher – but Haney intercepted him every time he tried anything, and very quickly dissuaded him from any forward moves. That left Prograis having to find alternative ways to get in close- and his lack of a backup plan was sorely exposed.

One of the biggest problems here was the limitations he showed in his head movement. Now, Prograis is twitchy, proactive and busy with his head, and had always fooled his opponents into giving him routes in before. Haney, however, didn’t bite on any of that. That meant Prograis was left relying on the true movements to get him there safely, and for that you need variety.

He showed the opposite. This was an open stance matchup, Haney in orthodox with Prograis the southpaw. The common wisdom is that fighters should be looking to move to the outside, around their opponents lead hand. Prograis typically does the opposite, slipping inside his opponent’s jab to come in down the center line – which isn’t inherently a mistake, and has served him well till now, arriving in angles and with timing that isn’t typical for such a matchup and allowing to deliver his left hand in unsual ways that opponents frequently struggled to deal with.

Here, though, Haney was wise to it, and closed that route with intercepting uppercuts and right hooks whenever he made to move in down it. One would have expected as high a level fighter as Prograis to have an alternative, built around going the other way- but he simply did not. His attempts to slip to his right, or to circle right and charge in from a more advantageous angle, were hesitant when they came at all. It almost seemed like it wasn’t something he’d considered he’d have to do, and when he tried, Haney was far too sharp to let it happen.

Nor did he have a more basic approach to go to. It isn’t ideal for a fighter who likes to use feints and deception to have to just tuck up in a high guard and get in close as fast as possible to let rip, but a lot of them will do when they have to. Prograis, again, didn’t even seem to consider the idea. When he did, in the later rounds, just start crashing forward, it was with punches already swinging and thus no defence, and he was intercepted easily again.

That left him without any answers, and Devin Haney able to do pretty much what he wanted. Some viewers have criticised him for the fact that, in light of this, he didn’t get more aggressive and knock Prograis out. That was wisdom speaking though- and it was hardly a timid performance. Although Prograis was knocked down once and clearly wobbled repeatedly, he was never seriously hurt. Haney getting too greedy would have given needless opportunity to Prograis in his preferred range.

Instead, he kept station in the center of the ring, circling but never retreating, and repeatedly rocking Prograis with newly improved power and deceptions of his own. The knockdown was a great example: he’d frequently been using the jab as bait, tapping Prograis with it before following with the real power shot. That left Prograis conditioned to react to the jab with preparations for what followed.

On the knockdown, though, Haney half-threw the jab and instead stepped fully through immediately with the straight right, and it caught the unprepared Prograis squarely off-balance. It wasn’t a super-damaging shot and he recovered pretty fast, but after that he got into his own head, unable to be comfortable at any range because he was unsure what Haney’s pattern would be.
You can see Prograis here, standing too upright and trying to intercept a shot that came too early. IMAGO/ZUMA Wire/Mikael Ona | Devin Haney lands a right hand on Regis Prograis in their contest., IMAGO
He didn’t knock him down again, but that continued throughout the fight- Haney keeping Prograis guessing, and every so often visibly causing him to stumble with a combination of crisp power and variations in timing and range.

It is a thing to be noted that Haney’s variation here was in small things- it’s not as if he displayed a huge selection of shots or movements. That’s not a negative- it’ll be for other fighters to test his limitations, if they can, but here it was simply about using the tools best-suited for the job, and leaving aside anything extraneous. The variations on what he did do were working fine, so he saw no need to overcomplicate things- and it leaves him with tools in the locker if things do go south.

He’s a very smart fighter, and this was his best performance to date. The judges gave him a shutout victory, and he’ll be very happy with that.