Conor Benn will make his Zuffa Boxing debut against two-time super-lightweight world champion, Regis Prograis, next month and former cruiserweight ruler, Tony Bellew, has offered his thoughts on the contest.
Benn avenged the solitary defeat on his record when he overcame middleweight foe Chris Eubank Jr at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last time out, before announcing a return to the welterweight division.
‘The Destroyer’ was installed as the WBC’s mandatory challenger and inserted at the top of their rankings, with Eddie Hearn lining him up for a clash either against Ryan Garcia for the full world title, or against one of the other champions at 147lbs.
However, Benn instead made the shock move to split with Hearn and sign with Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing.
Now, in his first outing since the move, Benn is set to take on Prograis on the Fury-Makhmudov undercard, in a 150lb catchweight affair. Speaking with First Round TV, Bellew believes that the Prograis bout has simply been ‘thrown together on short notice.’
“It is a fight that has been thrown together on short-notice and it just gets him out, that is it.
“If you are Conor Benn, you are jumping at it aren’t you. Everyone is making this thing about the amount of money that he is getting and stuff like that, but he will be like ‘you want me to face him for that? Absolutely no problem at all.’
“It’s mad, but it is this cards we get dealt. He has just got to go in there and deal with it. He has got a great coach in Tony Sims and he will make sure that he is fully prepared.
“He will not want to go in there with his fighter not at 100%, so you know that he will be on it. He will be sharp, he will be ready to go and I think that Regis Prograis has probably seen better days, if I am being totally honest.”
Prograis was comprehensively outboxed by Devin Haney and beaten soundly by Jack Catterall when operating at super-lightweight, but he has yet to be stopped during his 33-fight career.
Boxing 10 pounds higher means Benn will go into the fight as the heavy favourite.