LAS VEGAS — On a steamy, summer afternoon in Las Vegas, Regis Prograis walks into the Knuckleheads Boxing Club for what will be the second of three daily workouts. It’s his second week of a two-month camp in Vegas, far away from his wife and children back home in Houston. Instead of working out in a closed session, the former two-time junior welterweight titleholder is pairing up with amateurs - most at least a decade his junior - to drill fundamentals under the watchful eye of trainer Kay Koroma.
While Koroma is correcting all of the boxers, he’s paying particular attention to Prograis, repeatedly pushing him down when he’s standing too tall while hitting the bag.
The house he is staying at for training camp is a 30-minute drive from the gym, which means he spends roughly three hours in the car just going back and forth from workouts. The temperatures push 110 degrees as he runs the mountains and sweats it out under the unforgiving desert sun. For the 13-year pro Prograis, it’s part of the sacrifice he’s willing to make to get back to the top.
“My wife is home, my kids are home, it’s summer time. I could be on the beach somewhere but I don’t want to be. This is the only place I want to be in the world. Because I want to be a fighter. I want to be a champion,” said Prograis, 29-3 (24 KOs).
Prograis, now 36, tells BoxingScene he is preparing for a comeback fight on August 2 in Chicago, though his opponent has yet to be finalized. After losing back to back fights, unanimous decisions to Devin Haney in 2023 and Jack Catterall in October, Prograis has made the move to leave the comfort of his home in Texas to go away for training camp. He says he always knew this was something he had to do, but he just wasn’t ready mentally to be away from his family. What helped him get over it was seeing how Tyson Fury had cut off all communication with his wife for three months to lock in for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk. Suddenly, being a couple of time zones away didn’t seem so extreme.
After losing back-to-back fights, Prograis knew he’d have to do something different to stay in the game.
“You gotta realize, I always just fought. I was always a good fighter but I never really learned the basics. I came up through all the streets fighting and it’s surprising that I became a champion and then I became a two-time world champion. But now I feel what I’m doing is, I’m getting back to the basics,” said Prograis, who was scheduled to fight Oscar Duarte in February before a shoulder injury led to the fight’s cancellation.
“One thing about Kay is, every time I make a mistake, he’s gonna correct it. Back in the day my other trainers in Texas, they would correct me, but he stays on me nonstop. Sometimes I’ll be slacking a little bit and he’s just like, ‘C’mon, bend your legs.’ I feel like that’s what I need. I need teaching. I know how to fight, I got a big heart, I got the cojones. But now it’s about teaching and getting back to the basics.”
Koroma, who has helped fine-tune the skills of other top fighters like Shakur Stevenson and Bruce Carrington, says he doesn’t mind playing the role of the “annoying voice” repeatedly reminding Prograis of mistakes he’s making if it helps him shore up his skillset.
“I believe that sometimes as coaches, you kinda give up on a fighter sometimes like he’s just gonna do him and you watch him be successful one way and you say if it’s not broke don’t fix it. I’m the kind of guy that’s like, ‘Look, I’m watching how everyone’s beating you, I’m watching how I would beat you, I’m seeing the things you really need help with,’” said Koroma.
“Yeah he’s been a world champion but he could have been a better world champion if he had these things.
“Everybody just looks at him as a one-trick pony and it’s up to him to recognize that. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but let’s see.”
Prograis, who will be returning at his long-time weight of 140lbs, admits that it’d be hard to turn down the bigger paydays of the welterweight division, though he says his motivation for returning to the ring isn’t financial.
“Right now I feel like this is my purpose. I can step away from boxing if I want to. That’s one thing I want people to know. I’m doing it for money no more. I’ve made millions of dollars, I’ve got a number of properties, I’ve got cars, I’ve got everything,” said Prograis.
“A lot of people are doing this to get where I’ve been. I’ve been to the top, went down and then back to the top. I made the type of money most people not gonna make but I love [boxing] and that’s why I’m sacrificing, that’s why I’m out here every single day killing myself.”
Prograis says he isn’t so concerned about targeting any one fighter, as long as they have a belt at 140lbs. He doesn’t think it would take very long to get back into the mix, but it all starts with August 2.
“I just want to fight the champions. That’s it. That’s the main thing. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with the division but I do feel like the division is not that strong right now at 140. But I can’t really say too much because I did lose my last fight,” said Prograis.
“Honestly, it’s boxing. It may be one or two fights. In boxing you never know what’s gonna happen because every time someone fights the cards get shuffled. So you literally just never know.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for krikya360.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at .