The best match-up of Saturday’s loaded Riyadh Season fight card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia appears to be the oddsmakers’ pick-em defense by WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jnr of Georgia versus ex-two-division champion Devin Haney.
In addition to their youthful energy and gifts that will draw in a new set of fans – Haney as the sophisticated boxer, Norman as the 24-year-old slugger – there is so much on the line here in the glamour-division bout.
“Like we’ve talked about before – and I told him this in Japan – once he wins, he has a smorgasbord of guys to pick from, there are so many,” Norman’s manager Jolene Mizzone told BoxingScene. “You’ve got Conor Benn saying he’s coming down to 147. Shakur [Stevenson] saying he’s coming up. All the champions at 147 – Mario Barrios is supposed to fight [Ryan] Garcia. You’ve got Garcia. Rolly Romero. So many guys.
“I told [Norman’s promoter] Top Rank from the beginning: ‘This kid’s
personality, and the way he is with the press – you can’t not like him. I
haven’t seen a fighter in my 27 years who handles interviews like he does.’
“I’m on calls when he’s doing them. Sometimes they ask something and I cringe, because you never know what a fighter might say. And he nails it. That’s the beauty of it. He’s a country boy. I’m a Jersey girl – we’re real.”
Of course, so is the Bay Area’s Las Vegas-trained Haney, 32-0 (15KOs) – a 140lbs and undisputed lightweight champion who, at 27, has victories over former world champions Vasiliy Lomachenko, Jorge Linares, Jose Ramirez, Joseph Diaz Jnr, George Kambosos (twice) and Regis Prograis.
Norman, 28-0 (22KOs), is facing Haney in the challenger’s first bout since his Times Square outing on May 2, when he ran avoidance and claimed a victory over Ramirez on the scorecards but enraged Saudi Arabian boxing financier Turki Alalshikh for the dearth of punches he threw, Alalshikh decrying afterward that he wanted no more “Tom and Jerry” fights on his cards where a fighter runs from – not to – the action.
Mizzone assessed that situation this way as some of the most astute boxing matchmakers in the game project that Haney will again disappoint with an evasive performance following that three-knockdown loss to Ryan Garcia in 2024 that was converted to a no-contest following Garcia’s positive tests for the banned substance ostarine.
“He can’t get away with that with Brian,” Mizzone said. “Brian can cut off the ring just fine. Ramirez – no disrespect to him – was halfway retired. His style didn’t have the footwork to cut [Haney] off in the corners. You have to cut him off in the corners, and the biggest thing is you’ve got to throw punches.
“Everybody discredits Haney for that fight, but I discredit Ramirez more. You allowed him to do that. You can’t allow your opponent to do that.”
One respected trainer formerly connected to one of the fighters told BoxingScene the bout is immensely intriguing.
“Devin needs to be well aware of traps that Norman is setting – he’s a very good counter puncher,” the trainer said. “It’s important Devin doesn’t make full commitments at times Norman is setting traps.
“That is the biggest concern for Devin. However, if Norman approaches the fight believing he can’t ‘box’ with Devin and is overly aggressive, I actually think that would play into Devin’s hands.”
Norman certainly is going to seek to test Haney’s chin after it betrayed him in the Garcia fight and nearly got him decked versus Linares.
“There’s nothing you can do,” the boxing lifer of 27 years Mizzone said. “It’s like the old saying [Mike] Tyson had: everybody has a plan until they get hit. He’s gonna get hit with some of Brian’s shots, and I don’t know if Haney’s going to stick to his plan – whatever that plan is – or if he’s going to reverse and start running. I don’t know. No one does. He doesn’t even know.
“Is he going to get hit and try to stay in the pocket? Because Haney’s a warrior too. Is he going to get hit and try to trade? But once Brian hits him – on the shoulder; the elbow; whatever – he’s going to feel it, and it becomes a different fight.”
Mizzone of course prefers Norman to win in his second defense since going to Giovanni Santillan’s hometown of San Diego, knocking him out to gather the WBO interim belt, and defending it by knocking out Jin Sasaki in his home country of Japan by fifth-round knockout in June.
“I like him because he’s young; hungry,” said Mizzone, who added Norman has undergone hand surgery to repair pain that has ailed him in two recent bouts. “His job is boxing – fighting – he works 24/7. His confidence level is there, and he has the skills to do things. People don’t think so, but they just haven’t seen him.
