Regis Prograis defeated Danielito Zorrilla on Saturday night, live on DAZN, to retain his WBC super lightweight belt.
The 34-year-old made it five wins from five since his 2019 defeat against Josh Taylor, though he went the distance with his Puerto Rican opponent as he failed to deliver a knockout blow.
Zorrilla proved a tough opponent, but that did not stop the champion from calling for another titlist, undisputed lightweight Devin Haney, after the fight.
He included another Puerto Rican fight, Subriel Matias, as well as Teofimo Lopez in the list of potential opponents after the fight.
“There’s Haney, I don’t know what’s going on with Teo, there’s Matias, he has a belt,” said Prograis to DAZN.
“There’s a lot of big fights out there for me so we’ll see what happens next.”
We look at the three options put forward by Prograis
Devin Haney
There has been speculation about whether Haney would be able to manage the step up in weight against a naturally bigger fighter in the shape of Prograis.
The unbeaten American lightweight came up against Vasiliy Lomachenko recently and he was pushed hard by the Ukrainian who is at the top end of his weight after years in the various lighter weight divisions.
The question for Haney is whether he would adjust to the step up, especially without a tune-up fight to settle in, but for Prograis the risk is he comes up against a technically superior fighter.
Haney’s father, Bill, was in attendance last night, and may not have been too intimidated given Prograis had to go the distance.
Teofimo Lopez
It appears that Lopez has already vacated the WBO super lightweight belt that he impressively took from Josh Taylor last weekend, with the 25-year-old claiming he will only be tempted back for money.
It might be that Lopez finds Haney’s step-up to 140lbs just as tempting as the chance to ace off with Prograis, but with both of the super welterweights looking to dominate the division Haney might be seen as even more of a risk.
If Lopez ultimately decides to retain his belt then the chance to unify further could be the fight that is easiest to make, and sell.
Subriel Matias
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican is yet to put away a truly fearsome fighter but he is the IBF champion, and may see Prograis’ belt as a temptation.
The super lightweight division has some of the best names in the division still, with Ryan Garcia in the frame for a comeback after his loss to Gervonta Davis, and ‘Tank’ himself has form when it comes to moving up to 140lbs in pursuit of belts.
While Matias was namechecked by Prograis, both Garcia and Davis would give him the high-profile bout he could prefer as he approaches what are probably the last fights of his career.