Appreciating Terry Norris

[Emon723]

I never like him before because my favorite boxers were JC Chavez and Julian Jackson, but Norris had a great run during his time as a fearsome WBC 154lbs champion.

After winning the title over Mugabi, he defended it against Jacquot, Leonard, Curry, Castro, Daniels, Taylor, Blocker and Waters, he avenged his 4th round KO loss to Simon Brown with a 12-round decision win (It will be interesting to see if Norris can outbox Jackson in a rematch).

In his third reign after that DQ losses to Luis Santana and regaining the title for the third time, Norris defended his belt more often, including wins over IBF champ Paul Vaden and Vincent Pettway, and some of his victims before, Quincy Taylor, Steve Little and Jorge Castro would all win titles at the higher weight class.

It's easy to understand why he faded so quickly, Norris was a busy champion compared now to a Floyd Mayweather and the rest who were having only two bouts a year.

Norris definitely will not beat the likes of Hopkins, Toney and Roy Jones (who called out Norris) and will probably get embarassed by Whitaker and Trinidad but he was one fine, hell of a champion.

[ShoulderRoll]

He was exciting to watch. Great offense with poor defense and a shaky chin.

[TBear]

Norris was a remarkable boxer. He accomplished a lot but if he used his boxing more, he would have done even more. As is, he easly stands in the top five among the light middleweights. Nothing to be ashamed of.

[U_TALKING_2_ME?]

Norris is one of my favorite boxers born in Texas but moved to San Diego because Terry and Oriln used to get in fights because in Texas they lived in a all white area.

Meet him first Irish Spud Murphy's boxing gym in San Diego when I was a teenager and first got my drivers license. (used to drive to Vegas and S.D. all the time)

Terry was never one of the nicest guys I ever met, he was really quite and always had an edge to him.

But his father and Orlin were always smiling and very nice (Orlin was the spitting image of their father) I even paid their father to train me every time I saw him, and I also attended his funeral when I heard he had passed away.

Terry was a great am boxer and a great pro, the last fight I went to of Terry's was a unification fight against another S.D. native world champion Paul Vaden at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

They hated each other and this was no pre fight build up B.S because I forgot witch one banged the others girlfriend, the fight sucked because Paul forgot his balls in the locker room (I was mad as hell because at the time that trip cost me a good chunk of my earnings)

Terry faded fast because towards the end of his career he was already showing signs of dementia, Terry was also an excellent Baseball player and was a shoe in to go pro but he chose to box instead.

Years later I saw him in Starbucks down by the S.D sports arena and I asked him if he could do it all again what sport would he chose and for the first time since I have known him he made me laugh by saying loudly "Play Ball!"

[RubenSonny]

Overrated fighter, mostly beat up on washed-up names and nobodies.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Always one of my favorites to watch...

[MartinC]

I loved his fights with Simon Brown.

[soul_survivor]

Norris was good but never great. He faced a lot of fighters on their way down and lost to a lot of the better names around. In all honesty 154 hasn't always been that good of a division which is probably why he gets rated so highly amongst fellow light middles.

Edit: He was fun to watch though.

[just the facts]

Overrated fighter, mostly beat up on washed-up names and nobodies.

I guess you could look at Norris that way, but I can't think of one serious contender of his day he didn't fight

[ShoulderRoll]

How much credit does Abel Sanchez deserve for Norris' success? Were they together for a long time?