WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. suffered a left hand injury and is out of the Nov. 8 card at the Scopes Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Norman Jr’s title defense against Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KO) 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 it will have to wait.
The November 8th event will still take place, but one of the undercard fights will be moved to the co-feature venue. In the headliner, 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 accept the $1.7 million offer to fight IBF champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis in a unification fight on November 9 in Philadelphia.
They feel that Norman would not have suffered a hand injury if he had accepted the $1.7M offer, which is stupid. Norman Jr. he wanted $2.2 million to fight Ennis in his hometown of Philadelphia.
His father, Brian Sr., said that they would take the $1.7 million if the fight was staged in Las Vegas, but it was not acceptable. It was a reasonable way to do the fight, but Ennis’ management didn’t agree.
Norman Jr. he is 23 years old and in no rush to accept lowball offers made to him for a fight against Ennis. It’s better that he turned it down because Boots’ promoter Eddie Hearn will probably increase the offer once Norman Jr. it gains more attention.
In Norman Jr’s last fight, he defeated Giovani Santillan last May in San Diego. He won the interim WBO welterweight belt, then elevated to the full title.
NEWS: @trboxing & Team Norman told me Brian Norman is dealing with a left hand injury, which has forced him out of his 1st defense against Derrieck Cuevas scheduled for November 8th on ESPN+. Plans are to reschedule the meeting in early 2025. #boxing
– Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) October 1, 2024
Last updated on 10/01/2024
