Daniels Couldn’t Put Hurt on Norris

Early on, there appeared to be reason for hope from Carl Daniels’ corner.

It was evident Saturday at the Sports Arena that Daniels’ left-handed style was bothering Terry Norris, the World Boxing Council’s super welterweight champion. His right-handed lead was landing flush on Norris’ chin, and his head movement was causing Norris to miss badly with combinations. By the end of Round 2, Daniels had Norris backed into the ropes with a left hand.

But Donald Curry, Daniels’ trainer, knew the fun wouldn’t last. Curry had been Norris’ victim only eight months ago in Palm Springs, lasting almost nine rounds before succumbing to the power of Norris.

“Carl couldn’t hit Terry and hurt him,” Curry said. “He couldn’t hit him with anything to keep him off him. (Norris) started going right through Carl knowing he couldn’t hurt him.”

After two rounds of getting out-boxed, Norris (30-4) realized the same thing.

“I was caught off-guard for two rounds,” he said. “I changed my strategy after the second round. I realized trying to stick and move and counterpunch wasn’t working as quick as I wanted it to work. So I kind of like bum-rushed him. I put a lot of pressure on him, lot of countershots, body shots and then I went back to the head.”

Daniels, who had spent much of his career fighting as a welterweight, wilted under Norris’ pressure and was taken out by a Norris combination at 2:37 of the ninth round.

“I couldn’t stick to my game plan,” Daniels said. “My game plan was to go out and box and win round by round, but he turned it into a brawl. He’s a little too strong for me, but I gave it my best shot.”

Curry said the outcome might have been different if Daniels had more power behind his punches.

“If Carl had punched a little harder, he could have stopped him,” Curry said. “He frustrated Terry, but he could never hit him with the big shot.”

Daniels (26-1) said the strength of Norris taught him a lesson about fighting as a junior middleweight.

“I guess I’ve got to go back to the gym and do it all over again,” Daniels said. “I’ll probably have to go down in weight to 147.

“He was much stronger on the inside. I was hitting him with shots and I just couldn’t keep him up off me. He was mainly walking through my punches.”

Curry, who was has only managed Daniels for three months, said he had no regrets about taking the Norris fight.

“I felt like we had a good shot if good things would have happened,” Curry said. “He’ll learn from this and go back down to the welterweight division. He’s still young. He may eventually come back when he’s more experienced and fight as a junior welterweight.”

Will Curry come back and give Norris another shot after going 0-2 against him?.

“I’m not through with Terry Norris yet,” Curry said. “I have two promising junior middleweights, Skip Kelp and Emmitt Linton, and they will be ready for Terry in a while. We’ll get there . . . if he’s still around.”

Curry said he refuses to believe that Norris is invincible.

“I still don’t think he’s that great a fighter,” he said. “He can be beaten. There’s just nobody out there to test him now.”

Promoter Dan Goossen said Aaron Davis will be next to give it a try May 30 in France on ABC-TV.