Brother Mouzone · @mouzonebrother
25th Oct 2019 from TwitLonger
Had a nice outline drafted for my #PrograisTaylor prediction but won't be able to complete it due to work commitments. But anyway I don't AT ALL see this fight as 50/50 - I like Prograis decisively here. Have a full unit on Prograis to win and .25 unit on Prograis to win inside the distance. Three key reasons: 1) I think Prograis superior athleticism and hand speed combined with top-level punching power will ultimately impose it's will over whatever Taylor brings despite Taylor being the more versatile, possibly better technically-skilled fighter. Taylor has the slightly longer reach and could try to box from distance in spots but as we've seen in several fights with Taylor (e.g., the Baranchyk fight) he often can't help himself as far as stepping inside and trading punches... I think that will be to his detriment vs. Prograis. 2) Prograis's resume isn't quite as good as Taylor but he's dominated every single fight of his professional career, which includes fights vs. some of the other top guys at 140 (Indongo, who he stopped faster than Terence Crawford, Terry Flanagan, who going into the fight was considered a real test for Prograis, and Kiryl Relikh who was the WBA super lightweight champion before Prograis stopped him in 6 rounds for his 1st stoppage loss). Taylor has fought slightly better competition but has struggled in spots vs. that top competition. The Postol fight was *much* closer than the judges's scorecards (Postol was arguably ahead after 8 rounds IMO and was able to hurt Postol to the body). And in his most recent fight vs. Baranchyk, Taylor only won by 4 points on two judges' scorecards in his home country of Scotland despite scoring a 10-7 round in the 6th round of that fight. Prior to the step up in competition Taylor's KO% was over 90%. Prograis hasn't fought any guys quite as good as Postol or Baranchyk but he's sparred for a large part of his career down in Texas with elite current and former world champions such as the Charlo twins, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Erislandy Lara, Rafael Marquez, and Juan Diaz - this sort of experience seems to be reflected in how he's dominated thus far in his professional career. 3) I like Taylor as a fighter and think he's legitimately skilled but also think he's another in a long line of slightly-to-way overrated UK fighters (Ricky Hatton, Amir Khan, Ricky Burns, just to name a few). There are quite a few British fighters that get hyped up at the British domestic level only to fall flat when they step up to world-level competition to fight elite competition (largely U.S. and Mexican fighters). So I like Prograis to win decisively here - either by clear decision or even a stoppage in the mid to late rounds...