Did Terry Norris miss out on a superfight?

It was probably best that he didn’t go up to fight those middleweights. He wasn’t a big junior middleweight, and a chinny one at that. It probably would have got real ugly for him.

There was some discussion of him fighting Chavez around 93’. They were both Don King guys. You hear the commentators talking about a JCC match when he beat Maurice Blocker. That’s probably best for JCC that it never came to fruition, as he was just too small I think for Norris. JCC got that gift draw against Pea in Sept 93’, and then Norris lost to Simon Brown a little after that.

There was also some discussion of him facing Trinidad and DLH around 97-98. I believe Trinidad’s fight with Troy Waters might have been a title eliminator for Norris’s belt, but Tito went back down to 147. Norris was also in discussions to meet DLH, but lost to Keith Mullings on a DLH undercard (I think the Wilfredo Rivera fight).

Norris declined very rapidly from 95 to 97, and it may have been his excessive sparring.

 

Norris seemed to be more successful against stylists than the big punchers although he did win his title from a big puncher

the reason he ran into trouble with Brown is probably because he took him lightly, stood flatfooted, and walked into a punch that shook him

 

Terry Norris wasn't interested in moving up to middleweight during his prime.

He was in the last era - before weigh-ins were moved - where guys didn't dry out to barely make the weight limit for a couple seconds when they stood on the scale before immediately rehydrating back up to 160+.

Norris routinely weighed in for 154-pound title fights weighing in the high 140s or low 150s. He was 149 for the Meldrick Taylor defense. He was 150 for a unification with Pettway. So he often called out welterweights.

But, back then, Don King's fighters fought on Showtime and Bob Arum's fighters fought on HBO. Norris was a King fighter. Rarely did they cross over.

Roy Jones and James Toney were far too big and fought on HBO, so there was never any real talk of Norris fighting someone like that.

The only "big" names I recall being talked about in regard to Norris were Julio Cesar Chavez and Felix Trinidad.

When Julio Cesar Chavez was trying to get to 100-0, there was talk of Chavez, after fighting Whitaker (and winning) moving up and fighting Terry Norris ... which I always thought sounded ludicrous. Luckily, Chavez failed to impress or win against Whitaker so that was shelved.

There was also talk, when Felix Trinidad was a welterweight champion, of Norris and Trinidad facing off. They actually agreed to fight in 1997, and then Norris backed out, fired his manager and sued Don King. (Can't recall why. Probably wanted more money.)

So Felix Trinidad fought Troy Waters that night instead. And Norris signed with Bob Arum (with the hope of getting a big-money fight against Oscar De La Hoya), defended on a De La Hoya undercard against Keith Mullings (a complete journeyman), and Norris lost by stoppage in a huge upset.

 

I don’t know if he ever had any super fights but he certainly had some big ones and decent pay days.

 

BTW, Norris ended up being awarded $7 million from a lawsuit against Don King. King and Norris’s manager, Joe Sayatovich, were scheming together to steal money from Terry.

 

I was a fan of Norris but it's a good thing he never moved up and fought Toney, BHOP, McClellan etc. I think he gets beat badly by those guys. I think he would have had some success with his hand speed and combination punching but ultimately he would have been caught and KO by those guys.

 

Any hope Terry had of being in a major ‘superfight’ type event (aside from Leonard) was dashed during that mid-1990s stretch where he split two fights with Simon Brown and then had the bizarre two DQs vs. Santana.

He gathered himself and had a nice career going forward from that and could have been involved with some big fights with the right matchups but not major PPV type events.

 

I would have liked to see him against Hopkins. I think his speed and power could make an interesting fight especially as Bernard was
No big puncher.

 

I see him beating Chavez for sure. Too fast and too hard hitting unless he fought a bit of a dumb fight like the first Brown. Agreed that the Tito fight would have been very interesting if the timelines met

 

The best MWs would have sparked him. Jackson rematch would've been too risky given what happened in the first fight. Plus those DQ losses did not help him w time especially since he fizzled fast.

Like said, he was done by the late 90s so a Trinidad n DLH fight could not have happened as far lesser was beating Terry by then.

I think he should've been in more games tho I'm honestly not sure if he was in any. Sure there's complicated politics I'm unaware of. Would b cool if he does end up playable in the future to play those "What Ifs" but would not expect it just a wish.

 

I think BHOP smothers him. Not saying Joppy was anywhere as talented as Norris but Joppy had fast hands and threw great combinations. BhOP took that handspeed away physically dominated Joppy. I could see him doing the same to Norris.

One thing about BHOP was while he wasn't the biggest puncher, he would physically ruin guys. Tito, Pavlik, Joppy, Tarver, Cloud were never the same after fighting Hopkins. Tito and Joppy in particular took tons of punishment.

 

Leonard was pretty much a super fight, but Norris won too easily.