With Regis Prograis vs. Maurice Hooker officially dead over weight issues, Mike Coppinger reports that former champion Chris Algieri has received an offer to face “Rougarou” on DAZN “this summer.” According to Coppinger, negotiations between Prograis and Hooker came down to a single pound.
Algieri (24-3, 9 KO) first hung up the gloves back in 2016 after a TKO loss to Errol Spence capped a 1-3 skid since his breakout upset of Ruslan Provodnikov. Like practically everyone of note in this masochistic magnet of a profession, though, he returned to action in 2018 and quickly racked up a pair of decision victories. These led to a firefight with Tommy Coyle for a WBO trinket, which Algieri claimed via eighth-round finish on the Joshua-Ruiz 1 undercard.
The 36-year-old is far less appealing of an opponent than Hooker, obviously, but he’s only lost to quality welterweights. He’s tough enough to give Prograis (24-1, 20 KO) a proper scrap, one that figures to be plenty watchable