1. Now it’s confirmed for October 26, what’s your early prediction for Regis Prograis vs. Josh Taylor?
Miles Shinkwin (Former Southern Area light-heavyweight champion)
I haven’t seen much of Prograis but I know Josh is special. I have seen him up close, in training and in sparring, and he’ll take some beating.
Mickey Helliet (Promoter and manager)
I was really impressed by Prograis when he boxed fellow southpaw Terry Flanagan. His quick hands and the angles he found enabled him to keep Flanagan off balance and back him up. If Taylor allows Prograis to control the pace and range, I think he’ll come unstuck. But if he can settle into his boxing early and maintain discipline to keep things at long range, I fancy him to outbox the American.
Dave Allen (Heavyweight contender)
Taylor vs. Prograis is genuinely a fight I’m struggling to pick a winner for. This is a real fight between two world-class fighters coming into their prime. Because I like Josh, I will go for him in a tight points win
Gary Logan (Pro coach and former two-weight Southern Area champion)
Their styles will mesh so well. Both have a high punch output, excellent fundamentals and are excellent body punchers. Taylor’s technique is a tad tighter for me although Prograis’ ability to get lower and fire his excellent jab to head and body could pave the way for a late stoppage win. Still, I’m going for Taylor on a tough, close decision.
2. How close are we to calling Vasyl Lomachenko the greatest ring technician of all time?
Miles Shinkwin
Technically, he can do things no one has done before. His movement is from another world. Provided he gets adequate challenges, he’ll go down as an all-time great.
Mickey Helliet
Lomachenko is a spectacular specimen with a lot of skillful moves. I think it would be a bit premature to call him the greatest technician of all time, but he is definitely up there. I can’t see anyone beating him at lightweight in the foreseeable future. There’s talk of him moving back to super-featherweight and I would favour him to beat everyone there, too.
Dave Allen
We can’t be far away now. On Saturday, he was a natural feather or super-featherweight beating a big, world-class lightweight on what seemed, from ringside, like cruise control. He is special. When he fights it’s like watching a computer game.
Gary Logan
He is clearly in the conversation with Mayweather, Whitaker, Duran, Hagler, Robinson and Leonard. This is such a subjective an argument. We could easily throw former strawweight and light-flyweight king Ricardo Lopez in there also. They were all superb technicians in their own right.
Just bagged a Prograis vs Taylor ticket – thank you O2 Priority. Hope it’s not nicked in the post!
Taylor needs to fight better than in the semi-final against Baranchyk – but I know he can.
Miles Shinkwin clearly doesn’t know what goes into being considered an ATG as opposed to just a hall of famer.
While Loma is on the way to being an ATG since he has beaten champs & fighters in various weights but to really nail his ATG status IMO he also needs to achieve something like cleaning out a division over a decent period of time &/ or beating a great rival in their prime also considered really exceptional.