Newly-Elevated Welterweight Champion Brian Norman Only Targeting Unification Bouts
Brian Norman Jr. has said it’s a “wonderful feeling” being a welterweight world champion but insists he won’t be completely satisfied until he’s won all the belts in the division.
Norman (26-0-0 20 KO) was elevated from interim to full champion by the WBO after the belt became vacant when former undisputed king Terence Crawford left the 147lbs division to pursue titles at super-welterweight. The Georgia native won the interim title in May with a 10th-round knockout of Giovani Santillan in San Diego.
The welterweight division is looking a lot different than it did 12 months ago when Crawford held all four titles following his demolition of long-time rival and then unified champion Errol Spence Jr. last July.
With Crawford now permanently remaining at 154lbs as he attempts to become the first-ever three-weight undisputed champion, his belts are being distributed evenly among interim and ‘regular’ champions.
Norman ‘Not Satisfied’ With One Title
In addition to Norman’s promotion, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis was awarded the IBF title and Mario Barrios the WBC title. The WBA is yet to announce it but will inevitably elevate Eimantas Stanionis.
It creates the intriguing prospect of a battle between respective champions aiming to unify the division, and that’s exactly Norman’s ambition.
“It’s still a wonderful feeling, but I feel like there’s a lot more to do,” Norman, 23, said. “There are still three more belts out there to get, so I’m not satisfied with just that one. I just want unifications. I don’t care who’s next. I don’t care what the order is. I just want my belts.”
When fighters become world champions through elevation instead of winning the belt in the ring, there is often the sense the title has not yet been earned. Ennis has already proved his worth with an emphatic first defense of his IBF strap by knocking out the durable David Avanesyan, but the other three champions are yet to book their first fights as title holders.
Becoming World Champion ‘Lit The Fire’
However, Norman says he had already adopted a champion’s mentality even before receiving the full title and is determined to prove he deserves the status.
“I was already believing that I was the champion anyway, so that part of it was no different,” ‘The Assassin’ said. “It just lit the fire. The fact that I am the champion now just solidifies that. Now I am targeted, so I have to step up my assassin game and terminate everybody that steps in the ring with me – even worse.”
Norman also said that his father and trainer, Brian Norman Sr, is delighted by his son’s success and deserves plenty of credit for turning him into a world champion.
“He was the hypest person ever about it,” Norman Jr. said of his father. “You can call him right now, and he’s probably still on 1,000. He’ll forever be up about it. It means a lot because he did everything by himself, from a very young age – younger than I am right now. He was able to raise, train and mold a champion from the ground up over 23 years.”
