Brown Has Little Reason to Stay Humble : Boxing: He can gloat after stopping Norris, who dismissed challenger as little more than a steppingstone

Terry Norris, boasting of greatness and dreaming of further glory, was cut down by a man who calls himself “Humble Simon” and admits he’s not quite the world’s best fighter.

The soft-spoken, Bible-quoting Simon Brown repeatedly hurt Norris with compact, powerful rights and combinations in Saturday night’s World Boxing Council super-welterweight title fight.

He dropped the champion in the first round, sent him stumbling to his corner at the bell in the third and put him down for good at 1:06 of the fourth round.

The fight demolished Norris’ claims to be the world’s best fighter and completed a dramatic comeback for Brown, a former International Boxing Federation and WBC welterweight champion considered by many to be over the hill.

“I’m not going to get ignorant even though I won this fight,” Brown said Sunday. “I’m still going to stay the same humble Simon.”

Norris, 26, said before the fight that he was “the greatest fighter” in the world--better than WBC super lightweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez or welterweight king Pernell Whitaker, the other contenders to the mythical throne.

He described the challenger as little more than a steppingstone on his own path to a second world title in the middleweight division. “I’m going to take care of business, get him out of there.”

Brown said Norris’ attitude motivated him. “He definitely did, looking past me, to thinking about the millions of dollars down the line and not thinking about what’s in front of him there.”

Brown said Julio Cesar Chavez, the night’s headliner, encouraged him. “Chavez told me at the weigh-in that I can do it, and I just kept that stuck in my mind,” he said.

“I want to get this straight also,” Brown said. “Chavez is pound for pound” the best fighter. “I’m number two.”

Chavez made his own mark in history Saturday night, surpassing Joe Louis’ record of 26 title fights without a loss. Chavez ran his record to 89-0-1 with a technical knockout of Britain’s Andy Holligan, who was unable to start the sixth round.

Brown, who turned 30 in August, held the IBF welterweight title from 1988-91, when he lost to James McGirt. He had the WBC title as well for most of 1991.

He fought a series of relatively undistinguished fights after that while struggling with a broken hand, a the detached retina and an illness. He was twice forced to cancel fights with Norris, who suggested Brown was afraid to fight. Yet Brown entered the fight with a 39-2 record and 29 knockouts.

He shrugged aside claims he was getting old, past his form.