Regis Prograis kept hold of his WBC súper lightweight crown, but not until he faced twelve rounds of struggle against Puerto Rican Danielito Zorrilla.
Prograis edges through his late replacement via split decision, admitting his nerves took over at the Smoothie King Center in his home of New Orleans.
A debatable knockdown in the first that the referee ruled a slip also helped “Rougarou” in his quest.
More action was expected, but the bout unfolded with many phases of study and strategy where few punches were thrown.
Prograis dropped Zorrilla in the third round with a big left hand. Zorrilla then got up without a problem.
After this, the nature of the fight changed. Zorrilla was more elusive. This allowed Prograis to hurt his challenge again.
Regis Prograis beats Zorrilla via a split decision
The Puerto Rican was limited to sticking, moving, and trying to counterattack. However, Prograis was not at his best reflected in at least one of the cards.
The scores were 118-109 and 117-110 for Prograis and 114-113 for Zorrilla.
After the bout, Prograis said: “I kept pressing the action, but he ran around the whole time. I definitely have to go back to the gym and work on some things.
“Zorrilla ran, and he tried to survive. He was stronger than I thought, though. He caught me with some punches, but he just ran around. It was kind of hard to get to him.”
Prograis admitted he found it challenging against Zorrilla, who replaced Australian Liam Paro in the headliner.
“New Orleans, I’m sorry. I have to go back to the gym and work on things,” he explained. “I wanted to put on a little better performance.
“When you return for hometown fights, they make you nervous. I was in my hotel room. I was nervous.
“Usually, when I’m fighting on the road and not here, I stay in the hotel the whole time. This time I went out before the fight. Hometown fights, they’re the worst, bro.
“[Probably] next time we go on the road and return here.”
Ramla Ali got knocked out
In addition, Eddie Hearn’s big female hope, Ramla Ali, suffered a devastating knockout in a shocker on the undercard. Mexico’s Julissa Alejandra Guzman annihilated Ali in the eighth round with a superb shot.
Ali’s head bounced off the canvas, and she could never continue. Gonzalez had Ali down twice, despite being a huge underdog. She is now in line for a crack at Yamileth Mercado’s WBC belt.
Furthermore, Guzman moves to 13-2-2. Ali drops to 8-1.
