Regis Prograis retained his title but didn’t look anything like a champion.
The 140-pound beltholder had trouble catching up to a clever, elusive Danielito Zorrilla but got enough done to win a split decision Saturday in New Orleans, Prograis’ hometown.
The official scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 113-114. Boxing Junkie scored it 114-113 for Zorrilla.
Prograis apologized to his hometown fans for his so-so performance but he believes he did enough to have his hand raised.
“I definitely was confident I would get the decision,” Prograis said afterward. “I got the [knockdown] early. And I kept pressing the action. But you know he ran around the whole time. … He tried to survive.”
Prograis (29-1, 24 KOs) put Zorrilla (17-2, 13 KOs) down with a left hand in Round 3 but had trouble landed punches from beginning to end.
Zorrilla’s plan was to move his feet to maintain distance and land punches from a safe position, which was somewhat effective. He didn’t land many blows but his shots were cleaner than Prograis’ in a number of rounds and he took few shots himself.
He put Prograis down with a hard right in the opening round but the referee ruled it a slip.
Perhaps that was why Prograis, the aggressor throughout the fight, was leery to take the risks necessary to get close enough to Zorrilla to do meaningful damage.
As a result, he spent most of his time posturing and chasing more than punching.
The two judges who had Prograis winning evidently were impressed by the fact he at least tried to push the action even if he landed relatively few punches.
The two-time titleholder was making the first defense of the WBC belt he won by knocking out Jose Zepeda in the 11th round last November.
He can now target the other titleholders, although he said he isn’t interested in fighting Rolando Romero (WBA) and Teofimo Lopez (WBO) has said he’s retired. Subriel Matias owns the IBF belt.
“There are a lot of big fights out there for me,” Prograis said. “We’ll see what happens.”