Brian Norman Jnr was supposed to make the first defense of his WBO welterweight title in Derrieck Cuevas on November 8, only to pull out of the bout several weeks ago because of a hand injury.
At the time, Norman’s team said it was aiming to reschedule the bout for the first quarter of 2025. Now it has become more specific with the timing.
“It’s rescheduled for early March,” said Carl Moretti, vice president of boxing operations for Top Rank, which promotes Norman. Moretti spoke during a Thursday meeting of the WBO ratings committee at the sanctioning body’s convention in Puerto Rico.
Tuto Zabala III, of All Star Boxing, which promotes Cuevas, said the promotion is moving forward with the fight.
“Just confirming that we do have a deal in place,” Zabala said during the meeting.
Norman, 26-0 (20 KOs), won the interim WBO world title in May when he knocked out Giovani Santillan in 10 rounds. Norman was upgraded to the full titleholder once Terence Crawford vacated his welterweight belt; Crawford now competes as a junior middleweight.
Cuevas, 27-1-1 (19 KOs), has won four straight since a December 2020 split decision loss to Damian Ezequiel Bonelli at junior middleweight. He stopped the 15-2-1 Esneiker Correa in two rounds, the 13-1 Damian Rodriguez in two rounds, the 28-5-2 Alberto Mosquera in four rounds and the 14-1 Marlon Aguas in six. The bouts with Rodriguez, Mosquera and Aguas were all held at or near the 147lbs limit. Cuevas will end 2024 without a single ring appearance.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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