WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jnr has verbally agreed to fight former two-division champion Devin Haney later this year, an industry official told BoxingScene Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Norman, who is coming off a destructive fifth round knockout of Jin Sasaki last week in Japan, has informed his promoter Top Rank that he wants to pursue the bout with Haney that is intended to be staged by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh.
Those connected to the proposed bout say that it is being targeted to occur in November at a site yet to be finalized. Georgia’s Norman, 28-0 (22 KOs), has expressed his desire for the bout to be fought at the standard 147lbs limit without a catchweight or next day weigh-in limit added.
Haney, 32-0 (15 KOs), who is coming off a May 2 unanimous decision victory over former titleholder Jose Ramirez in New York’s Times Square, expressed interest in fighting Norman after attempts to stage bouts against recent welterweight champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis and current 140lbs champion Teofimo Lopez fell through in recent weeks.
Haney’s father/trainer/manager Bill Haney spoke to BoxingScene about the Norman fight on Tuesday, saying “You guys [Team Norman] said that you wanted more [to fight Ennis]. Well, guess what? We know what your ‘more’ is, and if you want that to fight Devin ‘The Dream’ Haney,’ then you can get that next.”
In addition to his financial backing of the bout, Alalshikh’s involvement might be necessary anyways, as Top Rank’s current broadcast deal with ESPN expires on July 26. Alalshikh owns a minority stake in DAZN.
