WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. suffered a left hand injury and is off the November 8th card at the Scopes Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Norman Jr’s title defense against Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) will be rescheduled for 2025.
Dan Rafael reports that Norman Jr. is off the card and will face Cuevas next year. This would have been the 23-year-old Norman’s first defense of his WBO title, but that will have to wait.
The November 8th event will still go ahead, but one of the undercard fights will be moved up to the co-feature venue. In the main event, lightweight contender Keyshawn Davis will face Gustavo Lemos. ESPN+ will show the event live.
Norman Jr. is being criticized on social media for choosing not to agree to the $1.7 million offer to fight IBF champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis in a unification bout on November 9 in Philadelphia.
They feel that Norman would not have suffered a hand injury if he agreed to the $1.7 million offer, which is stupid. Norman Jr. wanted $2.2 million to fight Ennis in his hometown of Philadelphia.
His father, Brian Sr., said they would take the $1.7 million if the fight was held in Las Vegas, but that was not acceptable. It was a reasonable way to get the fight made, but Ennis’ management disagreed.
Norman Jr. is 23 years old and is in no rush to agree to low-ball offers made to him for a fight against Ennis. It’s better he turned it down, because Boots’ promoter Eddie Hearn is likely to up that offer once Norman Jr. get more attention.
In Norman Jr’s last fight, he knocked out Giovani Santillan last May in San Diego. He won the WBO interim welterweight belt, which was later elevated to the full title.
NEWS: @trboks & Team Norman tells me Brian Norman is dealing with a left hand injury, which has forced him out of his first defense against Derrieck Cuevas scheduled for Nov. 8 on ESPN+. Plans are to reschedule the match in early 2025. #box
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) October 1, 2024
Last updated on 10/01/2024
