Brian Norman Jr will look to get back on track this Saturday, May 16, when he returns to action for his first fight since losing the WBO welterweight title to Devin Haney last November.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Norman (28-1, 22 KO) had rather quietly emerged as a top welterweight between 2023 and 2025, but struggled in a step up against Haney, but says he\u2019s been hard at work since the defeat, making some changes in his camp, including his lead trainer.<\/p>\n
Norman\u2019s corner is now led by the highly-respected Ronnie Shields, who replaces Brian\u2019s father, Brian Norman Sr.<\/p>\n
Brian Jr has made clear that there was no conflict with his dad, he just felt the time was right for a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I need to go out and get more experience,\u201d he said at today\u2019s press conference. \u201cI\u2019m learning to grow each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling good, I\u2019m feeling great. I\u2019ve been loving the process, loving the journey, and I\u2019m looking forward to showing what I\u2019ve learned during this time,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve been working on pace and mindset behind what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m trying to go out there and let the game come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norman says that \u201cof course\u201d he\u2019s motivated by the potential to get another world title fight and perhaps even a rematch with Haney, but that his focus is on Saturday, when he faces Josh Wagner.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I have that chip on my shoulder, but it\u2019s about going out there, being yourself, and doing what you need to do. The only thing I\u2019m focused on is May 16,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wagner promises to bring action: \u2018I\u2019m being overlooked\u2019<\/p>\n
Wagner (19-2, 10 KO) is a 33-year-old Canadian who has lost two of his last three fights after stepping up the competition a bit. He went to France and was stopped by David Papot in late 2024, and lost a shutout decision to Harlem Eubank in England last November.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very energetic about this fight. I want to show that I belong here at the top of the 147 division. If they expect me to fight on my backfoot, they have another thing coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being overlooked. They think they are going to run right through me, but that isn\u2019t happening. I can fight, I can box and I can move. Brian Norman Jr has something coming for him. I feel like I\u2019m big for this weight class so I\u2019m going to try and use my size, my weight, and my lateral movement to my advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The fans] are going to say, \u2018Who is Josh \u2018The Boss\u2019 Wagner, and when can we see him fight again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Norman Jr will look to get back on track this Saturday, May 16, when he returns to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-670122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}