Conor Benn was victorious against Regis Prograis on Saturday night, but he failed to make his desired statement in his first fight since leaving promoter Eddie Hearn.
Benn was a clear decision winner over Prograis on the Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov undercard, securing three scorecards of 98-92. But in his first fight as a Zuffa Boxing athlete, the controversial British star would have wanted to make a point with a knockout win, as Hearn watched on from the front row.
At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where Benn traded wins with bitter rival Chris Eubank Jr in 2025, the 29-year-old always looked a step ahead of Prograis – a former super-lightweight champion – yet he failed to put a punctuation mark on his win.
Going into the fight, there were rumours of an injury to Prograis, who insisted he was okay to box but didn’t outright deny that he had struggled through his camp. In any case, he entered this fight at 37 years old and at the highest weight of his career: a 150lb catchweight, as Benn moved closer to his natural welterweight frame after his middleweight duels with Eubank Jr, who also sat ringside.
For all of these factors and theories, Prograis withstood Benn’s best offence, but the American was still beaten across 10 rounds.
Actually, Benn had briefly looked on course for a first-round stoppage, tagging Prograis at will, but the veteran stayed composed, shook his head at the home fighter, and began to land clean offence of his own.
Still, Benn landed the most-consequential shot of the round, although it might have strayed from the confines of the round itself; just after the bell, the Briton speared a cross onto the chin of Prograis, buckling both of his legs.
Benn stayed mobile throughout the ensuing rounds, circling away from Prograis’s power hand – the southpaw left – and while Benn’s jab was landing as a consistent nuisance, he missed with numerous cross attempts.
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Prograis was failing to close range effectively, though, and his body shots seemed to lack the power to hurt Benn, who came out of the traps quickly in round five and stared down the American at the end of the frame.
Prograis had some words for the “Destroyer” as the sixth round began, and before long, both boxers wore bloody visages, with Prograis swollen and Benn seemingly cut from a clash of heads.
With Benn’s right cross failing to produce the desired results, the Essex boxer began to use his left hook well, while mixing in more body shots in a bid to weaken Prograis down the stretch.
There was an encouraging flurry from Benn in the final moments of round eight, boding well for the last two frames, though Prograis was still catching him out with surprisingly-naked southpaw entries. And although Prograis’s footwork betrayed him at times in the final throes of the fight, “Rougarou” heard the final bell.
So, here was Benn after his first fight as a Zuffa boxer: having competed on a card staged by a different promoter (The Ring), on a different broadcaster to Zuffa’s own (Netflix, not Paramount+), and at a catchweight.
None of it made much sense, given his one-fight deal with Zuffa, which was reportedly worth $15m. The bigger question is whether it was worth it at all.
