Jack Catterall walked away with the win on October 26, when he faced Regis Prograis at Co-op Live in Manchester, England. Battling it out in the main event, the pair squared off in the scheduled for 12 rounds bout at super lightweight. The WBO International title was on the line.
The contest went the full distance. In the fifth round, the British southpaw suffered an eight count, after he was tagged by his opponent’s lead hand and touched the canvas. In the ninth round the former two-time world champion of NOLA went down twice from a left hand. In addition, the representative of the country-host got cut on his head due to an accidental clash of heads. In the end, the judges scored the bout 117-108, 116-109 and 116-109, all in favor of the local fighter.
With victory by unanimous decision, Jack Catterall improved to 30-1, 13 KOs and secured his fourth win in a row. The 31-year-old looks to make his second attempt to become champion after falling short in his first fight against Josh Taylor in February 2022.
Teofimo Lopez Jr (21-1, 13 KOs) is a current WBO champion at 140 lbs. Promoter Eddie Hearn said he “would love” to see Catterral challenging the Brooklyn native.
35-year-old Regis Prograis dropped to 29-3, 24 KOs. The Houston, Texas-based southpaw suffered his second straight defeat. Post-fight he said he needed to see what would be next and perhaps to switch to bare knuckle.
The scheduled co-main event bout between Reece Bellotti (19-5, 14 KOs) and Michael Gomez Jnr (21-1, 6 KOs) didn’t go ahead. The super featherweight contest, with Bellotti’s British and Commonwealth titles on the line, fell off after Gomez Jnr fell ill in the change rooms and was ruled out of the fight.
Among other Catterall vs Prograis results, James Flint (15-2-2, 3 KOs) defeated Campbell Hatton (14-2, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision in all-British rematch. After 10 rounds at super lightweight, the scores were 97-94, 96-95 and 96-94. Flint similarly won their first fight in Sheffield in March. In their second showdown, Hatton was cut over his left eye, while Flint suffered a swelling to his left eye.
Pat McCormack (6-0, 5 KOs) of the UK earned a 10-round unanimous decision against William Andres Herrera (16-4, 7 KOs) of Argentina. All three scores were 100-90. With the victory, the undefeated British welterweight, who was cut over his left eye due to a head clash, landed WBA Intercontinental belt.
In the telecast opener, British super welterweight Junaid Bostan (10-0, 8 KOs) dropped and stopped Argentina’s Maico Sommariva (9-5-1, 8 KOs) with a left uppercut to the body. The latter managed to get back on his feet, but the referee waved the fight off, deeming him unable to continue. The official time was 1:39 into the third round.
Among the prelims, Stephen Clarke (5-0, 1 KO) of Liverpool bested Poland’s Mateusz Pawlowski (2-2, 1 KOs) via a six-round points decision at middleweight. As well, local southpaw William Crolla (6-0, 4 KOs) stopped Lorenzo Grasso (6-3, 1 KOs) of London in the first round at super welterweight.
In an eight-round all-English matchup at featherweight, Joe McGrail (11-0, 5 KOs) defeated Lewis Morris (8-3, 1 KOs) via a 79-72 points decision. Kicking off the action, bantamweight Emily Whitworth (1-0) of England successfully debuted as a pro scoring a four-round points decision against Sara Orszagi (1-3) of Hungary.