Brian Norman Jr. bet on himself – but was it the right decision?

We are the result of our decisions, and 23-year-old Brian Norman Jr., the new WBO welterweight titleholder, confronted one of those watershed moments in choosing not to face unbeaten fellow champion Jaron “Boots” Ennis for a $1.7 million purse.

Norman (26-0, 20 KOs) instead has been assigned a far-less-lucrative spot against Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) under unbeaten 140-pounder Keyshawn Davis on his homecoming to Norfolk, Virginia., card on ESPN on Nov. 8.

“[Norman] takes a bad loss, he’s not touching $1.7 million again,” analyst and former 140-pound titleholder Chris Algieri said on Friday’s edition of ProBox TV’s “Top Stories.” “Is he even going to get to $1 million in his next fight? I don’t think so. He’s going to need to fight some tough guys, and there are tough guys in that [welterweight] division.”

Norman would have certainly entered a bout against Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs) in the IBF titleholder’s hometown Philadelphia arena as a substantial underdog given Ennis’ sublime skill and experience edge.

Unlike the recent decision by former undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney to bypass a $1 million-plus purse to take on mandatory opponent Sandor Martin in a 140-pound mandatory, Norman has never tasted anything close to a seven-figure purse.

But like others who have been forced to consider instant profits versus their planned career path and building up to a string of those types of paydays, Norman and his team – including veteran fight figure and manager Jolene Mizzone – opted to play the long game.

“This is a very calculated risk – $1.7 million to fight a total monster in Jaron Ennis is still $1.7 million,” Algieri said. “You’re really banking on yourself.”

On the heels of some lackluster showings, Norman became a belt holder by elevating first to interim WBO titlist with a stirring knockout of hometown fighter Giovanni Santillan at the San Diego Sports Arena. When undisputed champion Terence Crawford vacated his belts and then won the WBA 154-pound title in August, Norman became a full titleholder in an email announcement.

“He has not had a chance to win a world title in the ring, and going right to Jaron Ennis is tough, but if anything goes wrong [against Cuevas] and you lose that fight, you’re really going to be kicking yourself in the pants,” Algieri said. “Only time will tell.”

Fellow ProBox TV analyst and former welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi noted that if Norman gave a strong account of himself in losing to Ennis, “you can get a rematch or elevate your status and you still get to keep the $1.7 million. … There were a lot of pros to the Ennis fight.”

Now the wager is on building back up to this point. Other fighters through history, including Juan Manuel Marquez and Tommy Morrison, have opted to walk away from more lucrative bouts in order to fight others, only to lose and force a career reset.

“You’re either going to fall on your face or look like a genius,” Malignaggi said of Norman’s plight.

Banking on yourself is admirable as long as it’s rooted in sound logic, Algieri said, which Norman must trust it is with the guidance of Mizzone, his promoter Top Rank and his successful businessman father.

“It’s not short-sighted,” Algieri said. “They’re thinking long-term, that they’ll keep posting up wins and that they’re going to get to that position [of $1.7 million] and beyond. I tip my hat [to that confidence]. I appreciate that. You’ve got a team behind you that believes in you.”

The caveat of that is the waiting game for the vision to materialize when the riches were right there for the immediate taking.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.