When is Brian Norman Jnr vs. Jin Sasaki?

Brian Norman Jnr vs. Jin Sasaki is on Thursday, June 19. The stream will begin at 4 a.m. Eastern Time (9 a.m. BST), with the main event expected to begin around 7:15 a.m. ET (12:15 p.m. BST). 

Brian Norman Jnr vs. Jin Sasaki will stream on ESPN+.

Where is Brian Norman Jnr vs. Jin Sasaki?

The fight is taking place at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

Who is Brian Norman Jnr?

Norman, 27-0 (21 KOs), is among the welterweights who are seeking to fill the void that was left wide open in the division after Terence Crawford captured all four world titles and departed – and the man who had previously held three of those belts, Errol Spence, also headed north to 154lbs.

At the time, all four sanctioning bodies had secondary beltholders. Over time, each received an upgrade: Jaron “Boots” Ennis (IBF), Eimantas Stanionis (WBA), Mario Barrios (WBC) and Norman (WBO).

Norman won the interim WBO belt in May 2024 with a 10th-round knockout of Giovani Santillan. After his upgrade, Norman wanted a unification match with Ennis, but the two camps couldn’t reach an agreement last year. 

Instead, Norman’s first defense was initially scheduled for last November against Derrieck Cuevas. Norman suffered a hand injury, however, and the fight was rescheduled for March. Norman blew through Cuevas in three rounds.

Ennis defeated Stanionis this past April to unify and was also awarded the Ring Magazine championship. He could be moving up to junior middleweight as well. That might be frustrating for Norman, but it might also open up some doors if those titles become vacant.

But first Norman, a 24-year-old from Georgia, needs to get through Jin Sasaki. Norman has flown all the way out to Tokyo to face his challenger. Sometimes it’s the case for the titleholder that there’s more money available to fight in your opponent’s hometown.

Speaking of lucrative options: There’s a far deeper pool of big names at junior middleweight, but Norman wants to become the face of the 147lbs weight class.

“I got bad news for the other welterweights: I’m very comfortable in this division,” Norman told BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan last week. “I’m gonna be here for a good time. If I move up from 147, it’s only because I ran out of bodies.”

And it will be interesting to see if the winner of the July 19 fight between Mario Barrios and a returning Manny Pacquiao wants to meet up with the winner of Norman-Sasaki.

Who is Jin Sasaki?

Sasaki, 19-1-1 (17 KOs), is a Japanese fighter who is about a month and a half away from his 24th birthday. He turned pro at 17 as a lightweight, moved up to junior welterweight and then showed that he had clearly outgrown 140lbs just before taking his first pro defeat.

That was in October 2021, when Sasaki, 20 years old and 11-0 at the time, came in four pounds overweight at 144lbs for a fight with the 17-0 Andy Hiraoka. Sasaki was well behind deep into the fight and was stopped in the 11th round. Hiraoka is now a junior welterweight contender on the verge of challenging WBA titleholder Gary Antuanne Russell.

As for Sasaki, he’s gone 8-0-1 since – the draw was soon after the Hiraoka loss and came against a 3-0 foe. More importantly, Sasaki, who came in at 142lbs for that draw, ultimately committed fully to fighting at 147lbs. 

Despite Sasaki’s win streak and his No. 2 ranking with the WBO, this will still represent a big step up in level of competition. Sasaki’s most notable win to date is probably his third-round drubbing of Keita Obara in April 2023; Obara had also been promptly dispatched by junior welterweight titleholder Eduard Troyanovsky in 2016. 

In Sasaki’s two most recent outings, he won a seventh-round TKO over the 15-1-1 Qamil Balla last September and a unanimous decision over the 29-14-3 Shoki Sakai in January.

What other fights are on the undercard of Brian Norman Jnr vs. Jin Sasaki?

There’s a second title fight on the undercard, with Cristian Araneta and Thanongsak Simsri competing for the vacant IBF belt at 108lbs. That title previously belonged to Masamichi Yabuki, who now owns the IBF flyweight belt.

Araneta, 25-2 (20 KOs), is a 30-year-old from the Philippines. He’d lost two previous title eliminators for this very same IBF title that he’s now fighting for. Araneta was stopped after four rounds with Daniel Valladares in 2019; Valladares later earned a world title at 105lbs. And Araneta lost a close unanimous decision to Sivenathi Nontshinga in 2021. Nontshinga went on to win the IBF title.

Finally, the third opportunity was where Araneta broke through. In January 2024, he took out the 17-1-1 Arvin Magramo in less than two minutes to earn this title shot. Araneta’s last bout was in December, when he put away the 16-8 Sanchai Yotboon in less than a minute.

Simsri, 38-1 (34 KOs), is a 24-year-old from Thailand. As with many boxers from his country, he’s remained incredibly active against a bunch of no-hopers. Simsri took his only loss in 2022, losing via seventh-round TKO to the aforementioned Yabuki. Fourteen straight wins have followed. The most notable was a split decision in December over former strawweight titleholder Masataka Taniguchi. The most recent was a third-round knockout in February of the 11-8 Songchai Songklod.

Also on this show: a welterweight fight between Sora Tanaka, 3-0 (3 KOs), and Takeru Kobata, 14-7-1 (6 KOs); and a featherweight fight between Yuya Oku, 8-0-2 (5 KOs), and former title challenger Reiya Abe, 26-4-2 (10 KOs).

can be seen on BoxRec.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter. David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.