Doctor Says He Saw Brown Several Times Before Scheduled Fight : Boxing: Norris handlers seek new opponent, date in the aftermath of cancellation.

HBO and Terry Norris’ manager were scrambling for a new date and a new opponent for the junior-middleweight champion in the Sunday wreckage of Saturday’s Norris-Simon Brown fight cancellation.

Brown, the challenger, checked into a hospital Saturday afternoon after experiencing morning dizziness and chest pain. The Caesars Palace title fight was canceled early Saturday evening.

“We’ve already had discussions with HBO,” said Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich, Sunday morning.

“They have Dec. 5 open, so right now that’s the target date. But as for an opponent, I don’t have a clue. We’ll be making a lot of phone calls over the next few days.”

One name Sayatovich threw out Sunday morning was John David Jackson, a junior-middleweight with a 26-0 record who had issued a challenge to Norris.

Two other possible foes would be middleweight champions James Toney and Julian Jackson. They were to have fought each other Dec. 4, but that match is now in question, bogged down in a contractual dispute between promoters Bob Arum and Don King.

Also Sunday, Norris’ promoter, Dan Goossen, wanted more questions answered about Brown’s medical condition.

Don King, Brown’s promoter, said Saturday night that Brown had seen Las Vegas physician Elias Ghanem “earlier in the week” for chest pains, but that “they ran tests and they were OK.”

Sunday, Ghanem said he saw Brown several times over eight days, but not for chest pains.

“I examined Simon on Friday the 18th for what he said was left shoulder and shoulder blade pain,” Ghanem said. “I did a blood test and an EKG and a chest X-ray. Everything was normal. “On Monday (Sept. 21) he came by and told me everything was fine.

“I saw him again Tuesday (Sept. 22) and he told me again: ‘Everything feels great.’

“At that time, there was absolutely no reason why he shouldn’t have fought on Saturday. But what happened Saturday (vertigo and chest pain), that was an entirely new ballgame.”

King’s staff released a statement by a Las Vegas neurologist, Margaret Goodman, who examined Brown Sunday morning.

Brown’s dizziness, she said in the statement, was probably attributed to “mild labyrinthitis (inner ear inflammation).”

She said an MRI of Brown’s brain was “completely within normal limits.”

In a summary, Goodman added she had found “nothing that should limit his fight career. His MRI is normal, meaning there is nothing wrong with his central nervous system. Neurologically, he is intact. His chest pains are not of a cardiac source.”

She also recommended additional tests.

Sayatovich was angry at learning Brown had sought medical treatment early in the week.

“If that’s true, then why wasn’t that information made public at the time?” he said. “It’s conceivable we could have brought in another opponent and saved the show at that point.”

The sudden cancellation took a toll on the champion as well as the challenger, said Abel Sanchez, Norris’ trainer.

“The letdown for Terry was tremendous,” Sanchez said.

“The general public has no idea what kind of workload a boxer undertakes to train for a championship fight. . . . Nobody trains like this guy. . . . And when you learn from someone walking into your room and telling you the fight’s off that it was all for nothing . . . well, it hit him hard.”

As for Brown, the 28-year-old former two-time welterweight champion, many wondered Sunday if his career is over.

Said Goossen: “After this, who would insure a Simon Brown fight? And what boxer would go into three months of training to fight him?”