On Saturday night at New Orleans’ Smoothie Center, Danielito Zorrilla challenged Regis Prograis for the WBC junior welterweight crown. Although Zorrilla didn’t win the title, his defensive strategy was impressive, especially since he did so in front of Prograis’ hometown crowd. The fight was quite subdued, with highlights being Prograis seeming to go down in the first round, though it was ruled a slip, and a flash shot from Prograis that knocked Zorrilla down in the third.
Zorrilla went to New Orleans to win rather than to simply grab himself a pretty paycheck. By employing a strategy of avoidance, the challenger was able to keep Prograis from launching effective assaults while landing some good shots of his own. Prograis only ended up winning by split decision.
Prograis’ Performance
Prograis, known as “Rougarou,” didn’t perform badly, but he didn’t look spectacular either. After the fight, he acknowledged that he had some things to work on. However, to argue that Prograis was somehow exposed by the relatively unknown Zorrilla seems like a bit of a stretch. All fighters have tough nights, and Zorrilla provided a tough night for Prograis through footwork and sharp shooting.
Although the fight was quite subdued, it was a contest where one fighter was willing to bore the crowd to win. It’s not a pretty strategy, but it can be effective. In this case, it just wasn’t effective enough for Zorrilla on Saturday night in New Orleans.
Prograis can now move on to other competition, possibly even big-name competition like Teofimo Lopez, now that he has technically taken care of business.
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