While rumors swirl of his high-profile divisional rival set to move on, Brian Norman Jnr has no plans to jump around in weight.
“I got bad news for the other welterweights: I’m very comfortable in this division,” Norman told BoxingScene. “I’m gonna be here for a good time. If I move up from 147, it’s only because I ran out of bodies.”
For now, the unbeaten WBO welterweight titlist is fully focused on his next challenger.
Norman, 27-0 (21 KOs), will attempt the second defense of his title against free-swinging Jin Sasaki, 19-1-1 (17 KOs). Their scheduled 12-round title fight will headline a June 19 ESPN+ stream from Ota-City General Gymnasium in Sasaki’s hometown of Tokyo, Japan.
The bout comes as there exists the strong possibility of a void at the top of the division.
Jaron “Boots" Ennis, 34-0 (30 KOs), is the current lineal, WBA and IBF welterweight champion. Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter, recently told promoters that his charge plans to move up to junior middleweight, though Ennis, a 27-year-old Philadelphian, has yet to confirm.
Norman was once linked to a potential showdown with Ennis, but their planned unification bout died at the negotiating table.
Such a fight remains the most appealing in the division. However, it’s not at all a focal point at the moment for the 24-year-old knockout artist from the greater Atlanta area.
Whatever fights are in Norman’s future will come when the time is right. The immediate goal is to tear through Sasaki, whose fighting style figures to mesh well with the visiting titlist.
“Jin is perfect for exciting fights,” noted Norman. “That boy do not like going the distance. He’s about action and entertainment. You see why the Japanese fans love him.
“With me, you see what happened when I won the title – we went to war. I’m willing to go to war again. May the best win.”
Norman’s current title run began with a highlight-reel knockout win over Giovani Santillan for the interim belt. Their battle of unbeaten welterweights took place last May and ended with Santillan down and out, while Norman made a point to literally strike a pose for the cameras.
His interim WBO title reign received an upgrade once Terence “Bud” Crawford completely abandoned the division last summer. Norman’s first defense was delayed, however, when a hand injury forced him off a November 8 date with Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas, 27-2-1 (19 KOs).
Their bout made its way back to the schedule earlier this year. Norman wiped out the Boricua puncher inside of three rounds on March 29 in Las Vegas.
Sasaki was ringside for the occasion and respectfully challenged Norman after the fight. The timing was perfect, as Ennis was already scheduled for an April 14 unification bout with then-unbeaten WBA titlist Eimantas Stanionis, whom he stopped after six rounds.
Norman casually expressed interest at the time in facing the winner, but Ennis shut down any talk of revisiting talks until his fight was done. The matter was never revisited until a few weeks ago, when Norman was already set to face Sasaki while Ennis was without a next set fight and Hearn sought to remedy that problem for his boxer.
“I found it very disrespectful,” Norman said. “That said, this is a business, and business is a cold game. From that side of it, he was trying to do the best for his side of the street. He painted the narrative of the other champions – me and [WBC titlist Mario] Barrios – as ducks, that we don’t want the fight. That allows him to claim that he got the boogeyman.
“The people may eat it up, but I don’t. Some people see right through it. Why do you get to say that I have to sign right now when I’m focused on this fight? If I’m not mistaken, Boots was just saying that he was only focused on Stanionis, which is what fighters are supposed to do. Why are you focused on three miles down the road when you ain’t even finished mile one?”
Having just turned 24 and as someone who truly leads the life of a hungry boxer, Norman is content to handle all challenges in the order in which they are received. After all, he’s not the one going anywhere.
“I’m focused on my fight June 19,” Norman pointed out. “By June 20, we can get talking. Right now, I’m focused on my mission.”
Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on and .