By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Many experts expected Regis Prograis to choose Ryan Martin as his opponent in the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Series’ 140-pound tournament.

The top-seeded Prograis surprised some people by picking Terry Flanagan. The British southpaw is a former WBO lightweight champion and has just one loss – a split-decision defeat to unbeaten Maurice Hooker in a WBO junior welterweight title fight six weeks before Prograis picked him July 20 in Moscow.

The right-handed Martin is undefeated, too, yet unproven against championship-caliber opposition.

Prograis (22-0, 19 KOs) and Flanagan (33-1, 13 KOs) will headline a card DAZN will stream Saturday night from Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Prograis’ hometown. The winner of their 12-round fight for the WBC interim super lightweight title will advance to the semifinals against WBA champ Kiryl Relikh (23-2, 19 KOs), who defeated Eduard Troyanovsky (27-2, 24 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round quarterfinal October 7 in Yokohama, Japan.

“Well, I had two picks,” Prograis told BoxingScene.com. “I could either pick [Flanagan] or Ryan Martin. And for me, Flanagan was the better pick because he has the better resume. He’s a former world champion, he has more experience. Basically, I’m expected to beat Ryan Martin, I’m expected to beat Flanagan. But I wanna be considered the best, and if I wanna be considered the best, say after I fight Ryan Martin and I beat Ryan Martin, then people are gonna say, ‘Oh, he was supposed to beat him. He was supposed to beat Ryan Martin.’

“If I beat Flanagan, people might say, ‘Yeah, you’re supposed to beat Flanagan.’ But at least Flanagan has 34 fights and he’s a former world champion. And he’s rugged, he’s tough and he’s gonna come to fight. So, for me, I picked him just because of that, because he has a better resume.”

The 29-year-old Prograis’ choice left Scotland’s Josh Taylor (13-0, 11 KOs) to fight Martin (22-0, 12 KOs) in the quarterfinals November 3 in Glasgow. Prograis thinks Taylor will beat Martin, but he doesn’t necessarily consider Flanagan, who’s also 29, a more formidable fighter than the 25-year-old Martin.

“I won’t even say he’s better,” Prograis said. “He just has a better resume. It’s the resume that impresses me. He has more experience. He has a better resume and more experience. So coming out the fight, I can take that experience, too, because I don’t think I’ve ever fought nobody like Terry Flanagan before. So coming out, I win in that, I take that experience, also, with me. It should be a tough fight.”

The fourth WBSS 140-pound quarterfinal is scheduled for Saturday night on the Prograis-Flanagan undercard. In that bout, Russia’s Ivan Baranchyk (18-0, 11 KOs) and Sweden’s Anthony Yigit (21-0-1, 7 KOs) will fight for the vacant IBF junior welterweight title Mikey Garcia gave up after winning it from Sergey Lipinets on March 10 in San Antonio.

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