In this video interview with Fight Hub TV, Maurice Hooker give his take on why a proposed fight against Regis Prograis went awry and if there’s any chance at salvaging the bout. Check out some excerpts from the interview below...
Hooker on why the Prograis fight fell apart:
“Over the time I’ve been spending with my kids, you know, I decided to move up to 147. My last two or three fights I’ve been having trouble making 140. I don’t want to struggle no more, I want to go into the fight strong for the whole 10, 12 rounds. Me making 140 take a bigger impact on me fight night because my legs be gone, I be weak making weight. So I decided to move to 147. So I told Regis and my team and Regis is like he ain’t gonna go up to 147.
“He’s like ‘let’s do 144’, but no, that’s still too low because my last couple of fights — my last two been 143 and I couldn’t make that either...They just started calling shots like they the boss of something, like he Floyd Mayweather. But we both have a belt so we can fight anywhere we want to. I’m like ‘let’s do 145’ he’s like ‘nah, 144’. You know, I left it alone ‘cause if you really want to fight me you’ll come up to 145...I just left it alone. He really don’t wanna fight, you know, (if over one pound) he gonna get outta line and go back-and-forth, to me that’s like little girl stuff. That’s chatters. I ain’t finna go online and have an argument with a grown man, who supposed to be grown.
“We gonna fight or we not gonna fight. If we know, you know, shut up and move on. You know, life goes on. So I’m gonna move to 147 and I’m happy to fight anybody they put in front of me.”
On what he made of Prograis social media posts about him:
“I mean, you know, he’s a little girl. He’s a little coward. I can’t make 140 no more, I can’t make 143. What can I do? I’m a big 140 fighter, like 6ft — that’s hard. Takes a lot out of me so I really don’t care what he say. If he think I’m scared of him he can come up to 145 and fight me. Other than that I left it alone because I’m not gonna go tit-for-tat with a little kid. We grown men, we can handle this in the ring and if not I’ma move on. He just need attention, he just that guy who need a lot of attention. He want to make himself seem bigger than he is, but he’s not.
“He ain’t a world champ, who are you to call shots? He don’t have the promoter, I have the promoter so I’m not that guy to go tit-for-tat and do stuff on the internet to be seen. So I left it alone.”
On if the Prograis fight can be made at 145:
“Yeah, I would love to fight him. I’m over it now. So I’ma move up 147 and try to be a champion at 147.”
On how he thinks a fight against Prograis would’ve played out:
“I’d have been relaxed, you know. I’m using my jab, I just outbox him. With Regis, he’s more like a counterpuncher, an aggressive counterpuncher. But I’m gonna use my jab, I’m gonna keep him on the outside. I’m gonna catch him coming in, if not I’ma grab him until the ref yell ‘break’.”
“Late rounds, just go to him...I see myself stopping him, you know. He don’t know much about me, the changes and everything, but I was gonna stop him. I was gonna hurt him, I was gonna stop him.”
On if there’s personal animosity between Prograis and himself now:
“When I seen Regis when they announced the fight, the dude was quiet. He’s quiet. He didn’t say nothing to me. Nothing at all. The moment he got on the airplane and flew to California , now he up there making videos, he this, he that, he talk. Like why he didn’t do that in my face? Why you wait to get to California and now you gonna be the tough guy? That ain’t you, man. You was just right here beside me at the fight, watching Garcia fight, we was sat side-by-side. I mean if you had something on your chest, you could’ve said something, we could’ve handled it right then and there.
“Now you wanna be this big bad tough guy in California? To me, he a coward. ‘Cause I feel like if I had something on my mind and I want to tell him something about himself and I’m right beside him, I’m gonna let him know ‘Say Regis, you this and you that and this how I feel about you.’ I’m not gonna wait until you fly away, fly to California, and get to running my mouth. You not man enough to do it in my face but you wanna do it for likes...he know, I would slap the shit out that dude if he did that in my face.”