BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Latest Setback Brings Norris’ Dedication Into Question

Terry Norris always swings for the fences and has both a lanky combination of balance and power and the quirky ability to collapse to the canvas at almost any time, after receiving almost any kind of punch.

Is he the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, as he has loudly claimed? No way.

But you could call Norris a 26-year-old, stripped-down, 1990s version of one of the great fighters of this era. Thomas Hearns-lite. The Hit Man, Jr.

Hearns, of course, would have never been knocked out in the fourth round by 30-year-old Simon Brown, as Norris was so shockingly last Saturday night in Puebla, Mexico. And Hearns’ most explosive knockouts were suffered at the hands of legends in their primes: Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler.

But if you saw a tape of that wobbly performance, Norris rocked, rattled and then was rolled just as in a classic fight by Hearns, a man who would lose control of his legs when hit on the button.

This is Norris’ fourth defeat in a 40-fight career, third by knockout.

In the midst of throwing dozens of heavy punches at the iron-jawed Brown, Norris was knocked down in the first round by a straight jab. He went down for the count in the fourth after taking a right hand off the side of his head.

“He certainly puts on the best show,” said Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich. “I mean, there’s no lackadaisical fights when he’s in there.

“That’s what Terry Norris is about. It’s not running up huge records. I could have kept lining him up against tomato cans. But that’s not the point. The point is fight the best fights.”

Sayatovich argues that it was overconfidence and a recent run of easy knockout victories that led Norris to his defeat in Puebla, not a weak chin. Norris went down in a second-round knockout loss to Julian Jackson in 1989, but made a big name for himself by beating Leonard into retirement in 1991.

Norris won the World Boxing Council super-welterweight title in 1990 and carried a 15-fight winning streak and the WBC title into the Brown fight. Still, the warning signs were there: He was floored by unheralded Australian Troy Waters earlier this year before jumping back for a quick knockout one round later.

“He had gotten away from what he does best, and that’s box and setting guys up,” said Terry’s older brother, Orlin, who won the World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight title in November.

“I thought Waters was going to be a wake-up call. But, you know us fighters, we get hit, knocked down, we think it’s just a lucky shot.

“Knockouts are what sells, you know?”

But the Brown disaster came at an inopportune moment for the San Diego-based Norris.

By losing the belt to Brown, who canceled out of two previous Norris matchups, Norris blew a chance to fight Pernell Whitaker, generally considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, in a bout that was being negotiated for mid-1994.

Beat Whitaker, and Norris would be the biggest non-heavyweight name in boxing. Norris might never get that chance again.

“Now, Norris doesn’t mean anything to us,” said Whitaker’s manager, Shelly Finkel. “Why take a tough fight when he doesn’t mean anything without a title?”

Sayatovich says Norris will probably fight a few tuneups before landing a rematch with Brown. Sayatovich says promoter Don King promised Norris that he would get him a Brown rematch “whenever he’s ready,” Sayatovich said.

Abel Sanchez, Orlin’s trainer and Terry Norris’ former trainer, says Norris will keep struggling unless he realizes that he cannot walk through everybody put in front of him.

“We watch him train in the gym, and he’s gotten away from basic fundamentals,” Sanchez said. “He’s going out there winging and trying to bomb everybody out. And when you do that, you’re going to get hit.”

Orlin suggested that there might be big changes ahead in his brother’s future. Though Orlin said he didn’t know about any specific problems, there has been talk in boxing circles that Terry Norris has not been dedicating himself to boxing.

“I think that there will be a lot of decisions Terry has to make--whether his management team can deliver after he’s lost his title and everything,” Orlin Norris said. “Because before, it was really pretty easy to manage Terry. He did everything himself by winning, knocking people out.

“Now, this is a real test for the managers, to see what they can do, if they can do things for Terry. Terry’s a loyal guy, so I think it’s going to take time.”

Said Sanchez: “I think he needs to sit down with whoever he’s closest with, whether it’s his dad, his brother or his manager, and figure out what changes need to be made.”

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Orlin Norris, who has always been the other fighting Norris brother, laughed lightly when the irony of him holding a title belt and his brother holding none is pointed out to him.

“It’s not interesting for me, really, because I’ve always been the type of person, whatever somebody else did, it made no difference,” Orlin said. “I just keep plugging away and do what I want in life.

“I hope he does the same. I hope I am some kind of incentive for him, to strive, because I know he wants to get back.”

Boxing Notes

Bob Lee, president of the International Boxing Federation, has thrown a wrench into tentative plans to line up an Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight unification bout in April at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Lee and the IBF say they will refuse to sanction the fight, and argue that if IBF and World Boxing Assn. champion Holyfield doesn’t fight No. 1 contender Michael Moorer--who has agreed to waive his mandatory challenge rights--Holyfield must fight No. 2 contender Oliver McCall. If Holyfield fights Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion, the IBF says it will strip Holyfield of its title.

“The associations are playing games,” said Shelly Finkel, Holyfield’s manager. “What’s the IBF’s logic? This is a unification fight.” But Finkel concedes that the IBF might prevent the bout. “In a perfect world, Evander would fight Lewis,” Finkel said. “Is he going to give up any of his belts for it, though? No.”

Finkel, who also manages Pernell Whitaker, said that the offer from the Whitaker camp to Julio Cesar Chavez for a September 1994 rematch has been increased from $7 million to $9 million--just short of the $10-million demand Chavez made a week ago.

Finkel also reports that his lawsuit against Oscar De La Hoya is progressing slowly through the courts. Depositions are scheduled for sometime early next year, he said. Finkel sued De La Hoya last February to recover large amounts of money he gave him, believing they had an oral contract. De La Hoya never returned the money after he spurned Finkel for Bob Mittleman and Steve Nelson. Finkel said De La Hoya’s current battle to leave Mittleman and Nelson has improved his case against the fighter.

Meanwhile, promoter Bob Arum on Friday sounded very confident that a settlement between De La Hoya and Mittleman and Nelson was near completion, possibly as early as this weekend. Any settlement would probably have to pay the co-managers more than $2 million. That would free De La Hoya to sign for his scheduled March 5 bout against Jimmy Bredahl, the World Boxing Organization junior-lightweight champion.