How good was Terry Norris

[ICB]

Watched a few of his highlights recently and liked the look of his aggresive textbook stlye. Just how good was he? What was his resume like, any notable avoided opponents and what was the quality of the division at the time? How does he go down in 154 history and how would he compete with top 154 pounders like Winky Wright, Fernando Vargas and Mike Mccalum?

Terry Norris was one of the best boxer/punchers ever IMO. When he would box on his toes he looked unbeatable.

But his big downfalls was his chin and concentration. As BK said he was DQ'ed twice against Luis Santana. But i have to say the 1st fight was extremely BS IMO.

Luis Santana was only tapped on the back of the head, and he done a Robert De Niro type performance to get a DQ win.

And as i said earlier his chin was for certain weak, he was on queer street from only a jab off Simon Brown. And he was KO'ed in quite embarrassing IMO. But he did totally give Simon Brown a boxing lesson in the rematch, in one of his most impressive performances of his career.

But those flaws made him all the more exciting to watch, lets forget his flaws for a minute and talk about his best performances.

His fights against Meldrick Taylor, Donald Curry, Jorge Castro, Sugar Ray Leonard, John Mugabi, Simon Brown 2, Luis Santana 3, Brett Lally, Maurice Blocker, Vince Pettway.

Were his best performances IMO, he also had a very good war against Troy Waters which is worth checking out.

Terry Norris had lovely fast hands and good footwork, he was a treat to watch at his best. And yes he would of easily competed against those fighters you mentioned. And he might of beaten atleast 2 of them. I know he for certain would of beaten Fernando Vargas.

The only fighter i heard he avoided was Felix Trinidad but i don't know all the details, there was also talk of Terry Norris vs Pernell Whitaker but that never happened either. Overall he beat a solid list of opponents, and he ranks very high in the all time Jr Middleweight ranks IMO.

[Motor City Cobra]

Thanks you 2 great info.

[BoomBoom]

He was inconstant. He was a brilliant boxer/puncher at his best and a glorified fringe contender at his worst. He very good fighter who fought very good fighters and won more often than not.

[Mad_Dog]

He was inconstant. He was a brilliant boxer/puncher at his best and a glorified fringe contender at his worst. He very good fighter who fought very good fighters and won more often than not.

boom boom I could not have said it best. He was a very good fighter, a devastating puncher, quick and he had good skills. His weakness was his chin IF the other fighter could land that good punch which did not always happen, but when it did...he looked bad. He beat a lot of good fighters.

see norris vs simon brown

[donnydarkoIRL]

I think he had an ever so slight touch oif the Zab Judah syndrome, in that he was excellent on form, but his focus was easily ruined.

Against a past prime SRL he looked simply vicious, combinations of 3-4 landing flush on Leonard with authority, punctuated his class. Aged as he was not many could have handed Leonard such a beating.

[Spicoli]

Terry was a must see and guaranteed to have you standing while you watched.Just as he was a crisp and potent hitter he always ran the risk of running into a shot himself & being staggered and dropped.Simply put his chin had all the firmness of dry twigs.Was a great boxer but often sabotaged himself by walking in and slugging a bit too willingly when not needed.Took some flack for fighting many smaller fighters.He had a flaw in that he could be very over-eager.It cost him greatly when he clipped guys late.He did it to Walker...just ugly.Stood over him when he was on his knees and hit him right in the back of the head,Walker flipped over like he had been shot.Curry,caught Troy Waters in the first the same manner in a savage war.It all caught up to him in the Santana craziness.One of the most undeserved trilogy's ever.Santana milked it but ultimately Norris put himself in that position.Lost in it was that Luis had Norris hurt badly on a couple of occasions.

He never ever lacked for fire and heart.Hard pressed to think of a recent fighter that had achieved as much for as long while being so susceptible fight to fight.When you think Norris you think fringe and tassles...great hair art ,suspect chin and a solid boxer-puncher.He really was a tough,explosive and huge hearted fighter.Favorite fights were his KO of Steve Little,awesome destruction of young undefeated Carl Daniels after being hurt early,Taylor,Brown 2,Waters,Castro.