Maurice Hooker is willing to reschedule his fight against Regis Prograis.

The former WBO junior welterweight champion just doesn’t want to face Prograis at a catch weight of 143 pounds anymore. According to what Brian McIntyre, Hooker’s trainer, told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix on Wednesday, Hooker only wants to reschedule their fight if the contracted maximum is the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.

Lou DiBella, Prograis’ promoter, told BoxingScene.com that Prograis will not agree to fight Hooker at 147 pounds. Prograis still considers himself a 140-pounder and he begrudgingly agreed to fight Hooker at a 143-pound limit only because the 5-feet-11 Hooker contended that he couldn’t get closer to 140 pounds.

“My guy is not a welterweight,” DiBella said. “Once he goes up to welterweight, that’s where he’s gonna stay. But he has unfinished business with Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez, and we thought Maurice Hooker. And people signed contracts. It used to be that signed contracts meant something. We haven’t said no to anything, really, but my guy is not taking the fight at a weight he doesn’t wanna fight at. Regis is not going to 147 to fight Maurice Hooker.”

DAZN executives have had talks with DiBella and Hooker’s co-promoters, Eddie Hearn and Roc Nation Sports, about rescheduling the Prograis-Hooker fight for some point in August or September.

The former 140-pound champions were supposed to headline a DAZN card April 17 at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. That show was canceled once the COVID-19 pandemic essentially shut down the boxing business in the middle of March.

The 30-year-old Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs) weighed in at 144¼ pounds for his last fight, a first-round, technical-knockout victory over Mexico’s Uriel Perez (19-5, 17 KOs) on December 20 at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. That was the Dallas native’s only appearance since WBC/WBO champ Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) stopped him in the sixth round of their 140-pound title unification fight July 27 at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.

New Orleans’ Prograis (24-1, 20 KOs) hasn’t fought since Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) beat him in Prograis’ last fight. The Scottish southpaw topped Prograis by 12-round majority decision to win the WBA 140-pound title from Prograis and retain his IBF junior welterweight title October 26 at O2 Arena in London.

The 31-year-old Prograis has fought at the welterweight limit once, in April 2014, and above it one other time, at 151 pounds in November 2013. Those were low-level fights early in Prograis’ career, however, before the strong southpaw became completely committed to the 140-pound division.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.