Norris Says Fight Plan Worked Perfectly

Three days removed from his fight with Sugar Ray Leonard in Madison Square Garden, Terry Norris had a hard time calling his pummeling of the boxing icon anything but a perfect performance.

“He gave me less problems than I thought,” Norris said Tuesday before a news conference at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. “Everything went fairly smoothly. I had a perfect fight plan and I executed it. It was my best fight yet.”

If you ask Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich, and his trainer, Abel Sanchez, they will tell you the same thing--that their fighter carried out the plan to perfection.

But not every boxing aficionado was as willing to praise Norris’ strategy--even one of the few who picked him to beat Leonard.

Alex Wallau, ABC’s boxing analyst, said he was surprised at how little respect Norris showed Leonard.

“I thought he was a little too cocky,” Wallau said. “He kept his hands down most of the fight. I thought he would be more in awe of him. The thing that didn’t surprise me was Leonard being so thoroughly gone.”

Wallau, who worked Norris’ second-round knockout loss to Julian Jackson in July 1989 and his first-round knockout of John Mugabi in March 1990 for the junior middleweight title, said he never saw Norris hot-dog like he did against Leonard.

“He fought a fight that turned out perfectly,” Wallau said. “But if he were to go back and look at the tape, he’ll find a fighter that took unnecessary chances. If he fights that way against Julian Jackson again, he’ll get knocked out.”

But it is doubtful Norris will be fighting Jackson again any time soon. Norris, Sanchez and Sayatovich seem to be looking for marquee names. And although Jackson is the World Boxing Council’s middleweight champion and is considered one of the hardest punchers in boxing, he is hardly the kind of name who could attract a big payday.

“We want a fight for the public,” Sanchez said.

Norris said there is not a fight in the junior middleweight division that the public would crave, but that doesn’t mean he might not still try and unify the title. The World Boxing Assn. title is vacant, but Gianfranco Rossi holds the International Boxing Federation championship.

Norris acknowledges that Rossi would be a nightmare to fight because “he head-butts, grabs and does everything you’re not supposed to do in the ring.” But Norris said he would fight Rossi in order to unify the title.

Sayatovich said he already has received calls from managers of four top contenders in the junior middleweight class, but he didn’t seem overly enthused about any of their proposals.

“We’ll just sit back and wait,” Sayatovich said. “We definitely moved from the low-rent district on the ninth (of February).”

Wallau feels Meldrick Taylor, a welterweight, might be the only marketable opponent around for Norris.

“If I were Joe (Sayatovich), I’d send boxes of Twinkies to Meldrick Taylor,” Wallau said. “I don’t see anybody else out there for him.”

Would Norris, a native of Lubbock, Tex, consider defending his title in his adopted hometown of San Diego?

“We’ve talked about filling the Sports Arena one day,” Norris said. “We could fight here, but we’d have to have a deal with HBO or something.”

Local promoter Bob DePhillipis is already considering the possibilities.

“I’m going to see if I can put something together,” said DePhillipis, who promoted three of Norris’ bouts at the El Cortez Convention Center. “I’ll be calling Joe Sayatovich soon.”

It’s probably safe to say DePhillipis will not be the only promoter calling Sayatovich.