Norris Stops Daniels With Barrage in Ninth : Boxing: He overcomes slow start to defend his WBC championship for the seventh time.

Terry Norris was slow getting under way, but eventually wore down challenger Carl Daniels in front of 6,182 Saturday at the Sports Arena and successfully defended his junior-middleweight championship for the seventh time.

For the first two rounds, Daniels (26-1) seemed to be a serious threat to Norris’ World Boxing Council championship. And although Norris never really stopped the previously unbeaten, left-handed Daniels’ soft right jab, his superior conditioning wore down the fifth-ranked Daniels.

Norris knocked Daniels down at 2:27 of the ninth round, and referee Lou Filippo stopped the fight, the first of what is projected to be monthly boxing shows at the Sports Arena. Saturday’s live gate was nearly $200,000, according to promoter Dan Goossen.

Norris (31-3), who won his 10th consecutive fight since he was stopped by Julian Jackson in 1989, now moves on to Paris, where on May 30 he will box Aaron Davis for a purse of $450,000. Norris earned $150,000 Saturday.

Also Saturday, junior-lightweight Gabriel Ruelas improved to 28-1 with possibly his best performance as a pro--an eight-round decision over Tommy Valdez (32-13-1) of Tucson.

And former New York Jet Mark Gastineau, 35, improved to 8-0 with a 52-second, blind-side knockout of Jaime Berg. Gastineau hit Berg when he was down and then knocked him out when his back was turned, drawing boos from the crowd.

Norris seemed to take over the main event midway through the third round. Although both men weighed 152 pounds, two under the 154-pound limit, Norris was physically dominant.

Daniels’ jab, which had little velocity to begin with, was merely a tap by the late rounds, more bothersome than painful.

“His jab was too quick, I couldn’t slip it,” Norris said. “So I walked through them. He was good. Other people underestimated him, but I didn’t. I trained in the mountains for seven weeks for this fight.

“Even though he had a good first two rounds, I felt even then I could wear him down. I felt in control all the way, but he did rock me a couple of times.”

Daniels, who earned $25,000, was handicapped from the middle rounds on by a swelling under his left eye. By the time he got to the interview room, it was completely closed.

“The eye bothered me, I couldn’t see his right hands,” Daniels said.

“He started working on me in the third round. He was just stronger. I couldn’t keep him off me, not after he started walking through my jab.

“I gave it my best shot. Maybe I’ll move down to welterweight now. I’d like another shot at Terry, but not until later in my career.”

Norris and his corner had to be concerned after round one. Norris missed with everything he threw and Daniels tattooed him repeatedly with the short, quick jab.

If there was a turnaround punch, it may have been a Norris left hook to Daniels’ ribs in the third, when the challenger was on the ropes. Norris finished the round with a solid left hook to Daniels’ jaw at the bell.

By the fifth round, Daniels’ corner was imploring him to get his punches off before Norris, but he never did. By then, Norris, simply ignoring Daniels’ jab, was in command, ripping away to Daniels’ body and connecting with combinations inside.

In the ninth, Norris hurt Daniels with a long right hand, which caused Daniels to back up, stumble and fall down. The finisher was a right hand to the chin by Norris when he’d backed Daniels up against the ropes. A three-punch combination followed and Daniels crashed to the deck, on his face.

Ruelas, the Ten Goose stable’s junior-lightweight who wants to box the winner of the Feb. 29 Azumah Nelson-Jeff Fenech fight in Melbourne, seemed delighted that Valdez had taken him the distance.

“That was good for me, because I’d never been that busy in a fight over that many rounds,” he said.

Gastineau finished off his woefully unskilled opponent, Berg, with what the crowd felt was a cheap shot. After 50 seconds of furious but amateurish action, Gastineau staggered Berg with a right hand that spun him around. At that point, Gastineau (255 pounds), seeing Berg (202) with his back to him, unloaded with a big right to the back of his skull. Berg landed on his back, like a sack of cement, and referee Robert Byrd promptly stopped the bout.