Regis Prograis exclusive interview: Hurricane Katrina was literally like hell - but it made me a fighter
When Regis Prograis was told by his grandmother, Carol, that it was time to make a swift exit with Hurricane Katrina one day away from wreaking havoc on his home city, the 16 year-old listened intently.
Raised along the Mississippi River, the teenager who excelled at all sports, and who loved the outdoors, knew the power of water, and had heard his grandma's stories about the devastation of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Now, in August 2005, it was time to move, and Prograis, along with his younger sister, a cousin and his grandparents, set off in their car towards Houston, Texas.
Marooned there for months, Prograis took up boxing - in the gym used by Evander Holyfield - and it has been his lifeblood ever since.
Prograis, now aged 30, and a formidable, unbeaten world champion who faces another undefeated fighter in Scotland's Josh Taylor in London this weekend in one of the match-ups of the boxing year, looks back on that harrowing time as the making of him as a man, and a fighter.
"It was a time I look back on that made me grow up, made me deal with things and have the strong mentality of a survivor," the light-welterweight world champion told Telegraph Sport as he prepares to battle Taylor for the Ali Trophy - the final of the World Boxing Super Series - and claim the Ring Magazine belt for the No 1 10-stone boxer on the planet.
"Every time I go back to the story, it was hard to go through at the time, it was painful, but I would not be here today doing this as a fighter if it were not for what I went through," he said. "We left one day before the storm. We have a 'hurricane season' in New Orleans, so we know there can be serious events. But this was different, and I'll always be grateful to my grandma for making us leave." Once in Houston, along with many others who had fled the disaster zone, life was chaotic. He found solace at Savannah Boxing Club.
"For a couple of months we did not know who was alive and who was dead. In Houston we were homeless, going through the motions, waiting in lines every day with others who had left, for hotel rooms, clothing. They were calling us refugees in our own country. We were homeless for a long time, then family friends let us live in their garage. That was like Disneyland compared to what people we knew were going through back home."
Prograis has detailed recollection of the events back home, from 14 years ago. "We heard and saw a bunch of stories. People were on the roofs, in the convention centre, then evacuated to the Superdome, and it was literally like hell in there. People getting raped, the toilets overflowing, somebody committed suicide by jumping off the top. Then the prisoners got out of the jail...
"There were so many traumatic stories. A father was on a roof with his two small kids, and as the water rose an alligator came and took one of those kids right in front of him; some people were just gone. It was a few weeks before I even spoke to my parents. It was a very bad time, a time when people pulled together. We know people who lost their homes, and when we came back, everything you ever knew was misplaced, or just gone.
"My mom and grandma broke down when we went back and saw their houses. But what I went through was nothing compared to what others went through. They went through hell."
Prograis, known as 'Rougerou' - The Bogeyman - has been living in a bedsit in Loughton, Essex, for three weeks. "Everything’s cool. The weather has been messed up, but it’s okay. I came early to get adjusted to everything. The weather, the food, the time difference - everything,” he explained.
You sense that nothing fazes him in the ring, after his teenage trauma, not least facing a 'home' fighter in Taylor, who has said he will give Prograis "trouble in every department".
“Of course, he’s just saying that," said Prograis. "He doesn’t believe anything he says. Maybe he’s saying that to give himself confidence. He can beat me in every department? Look at my resume, I’ve fought all kinds and stopped every one of them. How can he give me trouble? Maybe he says that to convince himself, or maybe he really does believe that.”
Prograis returns to thoughts of New Orleans, where he holds mythical status as a fighter. “Every time I fight, my city is with me. I’m like a role model. You can’t say New Orleans boxing without my name. I might even be Louisiana boxing. I take my people into my fights. They ride with their people no matter what. It’s like I fight for my city.”
Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis for the WBA, IBF, Ring Magazine and Ali Trophy super lightweight titles is live on Sky Box Office on Saturday night.
