140lb titleholders Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor took to the dais today for their final press conference before the square off this weekend in the World Boxing Super Series’ final match at London’s O2 Arena.
As despite the seemingly immense amount of respect the fighters have shown one another in the beginning of their promotion, things have sort of devolved now with both fighters chomping at the bit to go at it.
So during today’s official presser (scrub to about 1:03:56 in the live streaming video above, because these things rarely start on time and there was some technical difficulties), the fighters took the chance to express their thoughts about one another, with Taylor in particular calling out Progais’ resume.
“Didn’t think he was gonna stop talking there,” Taylor would say after Prograis had his opening spiel. “Fuck me, he can talk. Listen, it’s all smoke & wind. I’m going in there to do a job on Saturday and I really believe I can lay him out cold on Saturday. And I just wanna get in there and get it done now.
“100% I believe I can knock him out, yeah.
“He’s got good timing, he’s got good movement, good head movement, but again, he’s had 24 fights, 24 wins against nobody. He’s not fought anybody. He’s not fought anybody’s who been in there to win, to go in there and hurt him and to go in there to rip his belts off him. He’s not fought against any real live opponent who’s hungry like him and wants more success so he’s in for a hard night on Saturday.”
Prograis would them chime-in to respond to Taylor.
“You can’t hurt nobody if you can’t touch ‘em,” Prograis said. “Of course people wanna hurt me, of course. They wanna try to hit me but they can’t!. They don’t come in there to lose, they come in to try to beat me up. That’s what we signed a contract for, we come in to beat the other person up. But they couldn’t! That’s the difference.”
Taylor, however, wouldn’t back down from his opinion.
“Padded record,” Taylor quipped. “Binmen or something like that...take your glasses off, you’re inside you fuckin’ wanker.”
Adam Smith of Sky Sports then asked Taylor if he has any advantages that will come into play if their respective skills prove to be on par with one another.
“Yeah, I’ve got less experience in terms of number of fights but I believe I’ve got more experience, I’ve fought the better opposition, I’ve had a great amateur career, been all over the world, I’ve seen every kind of style has been thrown at me. So I believe I’ve got the better experience, more experience.”