Regis Prograis: the pugilist with passion for books hoping Dubai paves way to world title

Regis Prograis is not your typical boxer.

For a start, he is a former world champion, previously bearer of the WBA super-lightweight belt, and sits currently as Ring Magazine’s No 1-ranked contender at 140lbs.

Of his 27 professional fights to date, Prograis has lost only one, a debatable decision defeat to reigning undisputed champion Josh Taylor two-and-a-half years ago. Twenty-two of Prograis’ 26 victories have come by knockout.

From New Orleans, the American and his family survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the disaster prompting a move to Houston, Texas, and the burgeoning of his stellar boxing career.

Not long afterwards, Prograis’ other passion took hold. He is a fervent reader, which sustains to this day, even if his young family – he is father to three children – and his professional ambitions take priority.

"I just like to learn," Prograis says enthusiastically.

At present, he is 400-odd pages through The Dead Are Rising: The Life of Malcolm X, using the hefty tome last week to help pass the 16-hour flight from Los Angeles to Dubai, where on Saturday he continues his quest to become a two-time world champion.

Prograis, 33, faces Ireland’s Tyrone McKenna in the co-main event on the second of two Probellum shows this weekend at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.

Understandably, there has been little time of late to crack open his book. Prograis doesn’t usually when in “fight mode” anyway, although as he prepared for the clash with Taylor in October 2019 that pitted two unbeaten prizefighters against one another, to stave off boredom in London, he blitzed through three books in two weeks.

Back home, he says his shelves creak under the weight of his ever-expanding collection. His appetite for reading has become so