Easter vs Barthelemy

Regis Prograis might be the world’s best 140-pound junior welterweight. He’s exciting to watch and he’s got a powerful punch, and when he faces Kiryl Relikh on DAZN on Saturday, he’ll be competing for a spot in the finals of the World Boxing Super Series tournament. But he’s also looking to collect his first world title.

“This is my biggest fight, my first true world title fight and, mentally, the biggest fight of my career,” Prograis said. “Nothing will stop me from getting this belt.” Though Relikh is a +600 underdog, meaning you’d win $600 for betting $100, he’s no pushover. He could make life tough for Prograis (a-1000 favorite) on Saturday. There are plenty of reasons to watch Prograis vs. Relikh. Here are three of them.

1) Prograis seems to keep getting better and better: As his competition has improved, so has Prograis (23-0, 19 KOs). He knocked out the undefeated Joel Diaz Jr. two years ago before stopping former unified junior welterweight champion Julius Indongo in just two rounds. Six months ago, Prograis looked dominant against former lightweight titlist Terry Flanagan, and now, he’s got his sites set on beating up Relikh. But he knows it won’t be easy. “The only thing I took is that he hits hard,” Prograis said when talking about Relikh’s title win vs. Rances Barthelemy. “He must have power because Barthelemy just ran around for 12 rounds. It was a horrible match. He didn’t try and fight. He ran and ran. Relikh won easy.”

2) Relikh is no pushover: Though he’s a substantial underdog, Relikh (23-2, 19 KOs) is a good fighter, scoring victories vs. Barthelemy and Eduard Troyanovsky. Though he also lost once to Barthelemy and fell to Ricky Burns in a 2016 title fight, Relikh’s trainer, Chico Rivas, thinks Prograis should beware. “(Relikh) is like any other champion—he thinks he’s invincible (and) he’s walking in there with the right attitude,” Rivas said, via the Advocate. Said Relikh, making a pretty good point: “He’s not easy (but) I’m not easy.” 3) Prograis doesn’t mind talking trash about other titlists: He doesn’t have a world title, but Prograis has no problem imagining himself as the undisputed junior welterweight champ. He’d have to beat Relikh and then dispatch rhw Josh Taylor-Ivan Baranchyk winner in the WBSS finals to earn two of the division’s four belts. Then, he’d have to find a way to make a fight with and beat Jose Ramirez and Maurice Hooker to grab all four titles. Apparently, that won’t be much of a problem. "As long as the other belt holders don't hide behind their promoters and networks, I'll have the opportunity to become undisputed, that's my goal,” Prograis said. “I want to prove what people are saying about me being the best 140-pound fighter in the word. It's nice to have it said, but I want to prove it in the ring. …  Relikh and I are two top-five fighters fighting each other. You look at Maurice Hooker and Jose Ramirez and see their lack of competition. They're not fighting top-10 guys. For me, boxing is about the best fighting the best.”

There’s been some pretty good trash talking in the leadup to the Robert Easter Jr.-Rances Barthelemy fight Saturday night on Showtime. “This fight is going to be a lot of action and I don’t think it’s going to make it to the final bell,” Easter—who, like Barthelemy, is making a $250,000 purse—said.

Easter (21-1, 14 KOs) is coming off the first loss of his career vs. Mikey Garcia last year, while Barthelemy (27-1, 14 KOs), a former lightweight titlist, is trying to get himself back into the 135-pound championship picture. And Barthelemy’s best barb was even better than Easter’s comment. Said Barthelemy, a +375 underdog: “I’m going to make him dance to the rhythm of the ‘Cuban Salsa’ on Saturday night. Easter, meanwhile, is a -500 favorite

Though Danny Garcia looked fantastic while knocking out Adrian Granados last weekend, the ratings weren’t so good. The telecast averaged 1.08 million viewers with a peak of 1.47 million, according to Boxing Scene.

It’s the worst-rated Fox boxing telecast of the year so far and well behind the best showing of 2019, when an average of 1.98 million and a peak of 2.77 million watched Keith Thurman beat Josesito Lopez.

But there’s a reasonable explanation. The Garcia-Granados was broadcast at the same time as the Terence Crawford vs. Amir Khan PPV telecast along with the NBA and NHL playoffs.