Battle of the Boogie Men

Live from the StubHub Center in Carson, California on November 26, 2022, Jose ‘Chon” Zepeda will face Regis “Rougarou” Prograis for the vacant WBC World Title. There is a lot of momentum coming into this fight from both fighters as they are well known for their knockouts. Zepeda is riding a 5-win streak with 2 KO’s and Porgrais riding a 3-win streak with 3 KO’s.

Earlier this year Zepeda had a great opportunity to go against Josh Taylor. Taylor would have been defending all his belts in the fight which may have caused some intimidation for the lack luster performance he gave Catterall. Zepeda would have certainly beaten that version of him which led Taylor to elect out of the fight. There may have been some backlash from the fans that led Josh Taylor to announce that he would fight Zepeda. This had boxing fans on the edge of their seats, but again were disappointed to discover that Taylor vacated the WBC belt and decided to give Jack Catterall the rematch instead of facing Zepeda when Zepeda was his mandatory.

Most boxing fans may remember Zepeda’s match against Jose Ramirez which was a close decision but ultimately ended in a loss for Zepeda. Since the fight was in Ramirez’s hometown Fresno, California some speculators believe that is the reason Ramirez had the edge on this fight. With the WBC belt up for grabs a rematch was in the works between these two fighters, but Ramirez decided to pull out and not take the rematch although negotiations were in the works. Could this be a trend?

With two of the top fighters in the Super Lightweight Division avoiding Zepeda; Porgrais stepped up to the plate. He is coming into this fight with his 3-win streak after his loss to Josh Taylor. Prograis was getting a bit of a reputation for scaring off some of the top fighters as they did not want to step in the ring with him. Josh Taylor had turned down a rematch with Porgrais and his response was to call out the top fighters in the division which led to no response. When there are two fighters that are being avoided the best thing to do is to is to match them up against each other!

With the lack of mainstream fights living up to the hype this fight has the chance of being an instant classic! Hardcore fans are buzzing about this fight, and it should be on the radar for casual fans as well. With destructive Jose Zepeda being in fight of the year with his knockouts also taking this title; he is a true KO artist! Regis Prorais is a former world champion and having faced the divisions best; this truly has the recipe to be the fight of the year.