With the best at super-lightweight and welterweight division often linked to fighting one another, Brian Norman Jr will be among the interested onlookers when Teofimo Lopez meets Shakur Stevenson later this month.
The January 31 super-fight takes place fittingly at Madison Square Garden, a venue synonymous with defining nights and elite champions. On the night Lopez will defend his WBO super-lightweight title against Stevenson in a bout that has implications well beyond the belts on offer.
Norman, known as “The Assassin II”, knows how quickly momentum can swing at world level. The 25-year-old suffered the first defeat of his professional career in November when he was outboxed by Devin Haney in Riyadh, a loss that also brought an end to his reign as WBO welterweight champion.
In the aftermath, Norman revealed he will continue his career without his father as lead trainer, signalling a period of reassessment and change.
Several weeks on from that setback, Norman appeared on Cigar Talk to reflect on the loss and look to future fights including Lopez vs Stevenson.
“I think that gonna be a wonderful fight to be real with you. But I feel like Shakur going to pull it off. And the reason being is because of discipline.
“Like you look at Shakur as a whole, he don’t care about getting booed. He don’t care about anything like that. He care about winning, ’cause at the end of the day, that’s all that matter.
“Teo, I ain’t trying to take nothing from him. I feel like he’s a great fighter as well. Very athletic, very talented and skilful as well. But I just feel like the patience of Shakur is what’s going to do it.”
Whether Norman’s prediction proves accurate or not, the result at Madison Square Garden is likely to ripple through two divisions. And as Norman plots his return he may be the first to welcome whoever out of Lopez and Stevenson makes the move first to 147lbs.
