McGirt Skips Norris to Fight Oliva

World junior middleweight Terry Norris apparently is finally gaining the respect he’s always wanted. Except now Norris might be getting too much respect for his own good.

James “Buddy” McGirt said Thursday he would defend his World Boxing Council welterweight title June 25 in Rome against Patarizio Oliva of Italy for a reported $200,000. Oliva (57-1) is ranked No. 2 by the WBC.

In doing so, McGirt (56-2-1) spurned a $1-million offer from HBO to fight world junior middleweight champion Terry Norris in September or October.

Joe Sayatovich, Terry Norris’ manager, could hardly believe it.

“It surprises me a kid would take a fight into somebody else’s hometown and make $200,000,” Sayatovich said. “He could have had $800,000 more than that with Terry. It’s ignorance. I don’t think I can explain it.

“He also is risking his title by fighting (Oliva). Even if he loses to Terry, he keeps his title.”

McGirt told Associated Press he is eager to fight Oliva.

“It will be a pleasure to fight him in his backyard,” McGirt said.

Sayatovich said a Norris-McGirt bout probably would have forced the fighters to come in at 150 1/2 pounds and neither fighter would have risked his title.

Dan Goossen, who would have promoted the bout, said he wasn’t surprised by McGirt’s decision.

“It might be a move to save face,” Goossen said. “I think it’s smart thing to do. I wouldn’t want to fight Terry Norris if I was Buddy McGirt. But with the way the economy is going, a million dollars is still a lot of money to turn down. I guess he would have wanted more than that after what Terry did to Meldrick Taylor.”

Sayatovich said he spoke with Al Certo, McGirt’s manager, and never got the impression Certo was excited to fight Norris.

“We knew there would be problems, because he turned down $1.3 or 1.5 million to fight Meldrick Taylor,” Sayatovich said.

Sayatovich also offered Certo a guaranteed $1 million and an additional winner-take-all offer of $600,000.

Possible opponents for Norris are middleweight Reggie Johnson, junior middleweight Simon Brown or junior middleweight John David Jackson.

Sayatovich said the sites for Norris’ next bout will be San Diego, Las Vegas or Palm Springs.