SOMETHING TO SAY
THE VILLAIN II MIXTAPE Curated by trainer and cutman Jessy Ross Thompson, who has worked with 10 Olympians and cornered for contenders such as Radivoje Kalajdzic, Artur Ziyatdinov and Trevor McCumby.
to fight right down the inside. I trust my timing. I know I’m going to see that shot,” said Norman. “And it’s even easier on the outside. That’s how I look at it. “Also, people don’t realize I really got some long arms, and I’m also faster than what you think I was. You think it’s just power. It’s not. It’s about the timing, speed, power, technique. Everything. And then foot placement. Like people are trying to say I don’t move my head enough in my last fight. But go watch the fight. Go watch my feet. Those are small steps I was taking. Small steps. Look, that’s
independent approach: “Let me tell you why that is,” said Norman Jr. “I don’t wanna get cool with nobody. I gotta fight all these guys. I gotta fight each and every last one of them. I ain’t cool with nobody. I don’t want to be cool.” The Normans are certainly not cool with the Haneys, with whom a war of words began back in June of this year, ultimately leading to a tantalizing but somewhat surprising matchup between two of the sport’s young stars. A battle between a powerful, offensively gifted fighter and a more experienced, defensively stifling boxer. Although Haney’s scary moments against Ryan Garcia are fresh in everyone’s minds (as well as the controversy due to Garcia’s positive drug test, resulting in Haney’s initial loss being changed to a “no contest”), overall, Haney is one of the trickiest fighters in the sport to hit, statistically. According to CompuBox, Haney is in the top 10 of champion-caliber fighters in terms of fewest punches absorbed per round and lowest in opponents’ connect percentage. While Norman Sr. acknowledges the gravity of the fight and the skill level of their opponent, he doesn’t see strategizing for Haney as being particularly complex. “He’s a great fighter. He’s been doing what he’s been doing, but it was harder for me to watch Jin Sasaki,” said Norman Sr. “I know that sounds crazy. It was harder for me to watch Jin Sasaki, Giovani Santillan, Derrieck Cuevas, because there were certain things I had to break down and I had to understand. With Devin Haney, I can understand it clearly, and I can understand it the first time. “What I understand is he has a very sizable advantage on every single opponent. The very first jab to the head he threw [against Garcia], he got hooked. Because he was in range. He was in range and he was hurt by a person with the exact same dimensions as him. A person that could reach him that he did not have the size advantage over. So to me, it’s not hard to see. I honestly see this as an easier breakdown.” Though Norman is already a world titleholder, just like OutKast was already succeeding on the charts as they stepped on stage at the Paramount Theatre in New York in ’95, there’s still a broader audience yet to discover or appreciate him. Perhaps potential fans are resistant because of the lack of a co-sign from famous camp mates, or because he’s not training at Gleason’s or Wild Card. Or maybe they think he’s simply a one-note fighter, a guy with a rocket of a left hook but a lack of depth ready to be neutralized. This fight, then, is the Normans’ act of defiance, a chance to say what they have to say, for everyone to hear their mixtape. “No matter how big we may get – quote unquote how big – we still know where we come from,” explained Norman Jr. “We still know where we at. It’s something better than us. We ain’t going back; it’s as simple as that. We ain’t going back. We been down there before. Nothing was ever given to us. So the work ethic is straight-up different, because we afraid to be back there. We not going for that.”
“Watch for the Hook” His hook is powerful, yet effortless. And the main reason he’s able to fire it with such ease is that if you watch him carefully, similar to many American fighters, [he] will get square purposely or dip [his] head to the left. Floyd Mayweather was an expert at doing so. By getting square, he’s able
Norman emphatically stopped Derrieck Cuevas on the Mayer- Ryan 2 card in Las Vegas.
all you need. People saying move your head, but I move my whole body off the line, not just my head. So it’s all about the small steps, small things. People think it’s quantity over quality. I like quality work.” The adherence to quality over quantity has been instilled by his father and trainer, Brian Norman Sr., the fighter he learned to imitate long before Jones or Tyson or Hagler. The elder Norman, also known as The Assassin, was an 18-11 pro at super middleweight and light heavyweight, locking horns with the likes of Jean Pascal and Edwin Rodriguez. Norman Sr. is just 46 years old, meaning his son was plenty cognizant during the majority of his fighting career, literally growing up in the gym. Growing up in the gym doesn’t necessarily make someone a natural talent, though, especially not in the discerning eyes of an active pro fighter. That said, it didn’t take long for both father and son to determine that there would be an Assassin II who would surpass his pops’ success in the ring. When you ask them when that moment was, the response is immediate and definitive: “December 4th, 2014,” they both answer simultaneously. It was during a 15-round sparring session, when Norman Jr. was 14 years old, that he and his father realized he had something special. In that moment, Norman Jr. finally felt like he could let loose, and everything started to click. “This guy used to get the best of me, every single time,” said Norman. “Then that day, I said, ‘Lemme just try.’ That’s all I did; I just tried. For 15 minutes straight, from corner to corner, post to post, I was giving this dude the business. Literally just the day before, he was getting the best of me, and then literally just like that, with the snap of a finger, it’s
to shoot his lead left hook off of a defensive reaction or feint. He goes square a lot and keeps opponents wondering if he will shoot it.
all over.” “I had been telling him things. I had been trying to explain things, and then you just finally get it,” said Norman Sr. of the paradigm shift. “He just got it. I’m like, ‘Yes, you’re locking in to what I’ve been telling you.’” A few years later, a still-teenage Norman was sparring Gervonta Davis, fresh off his title-winning effort against Jose Pedraza, and feeling as though he held his own. “We were going back and forth,” said Norman “I’m going back and forth with a world champion. That stuck out to me a whole lot.” In addition to Davis, Norman has had highly publicized sparring sessions with Terence Crawford that served as confidence builders, but it’s the session in the home gym in the suffocating Georgia heat that both father and son draw upon as confirmation that he has it . It speaks to what is most meaningful to the Normans – their hometown, but also their solitude. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Norman hasn’t spent a ton of time bouncing around training camps, rubbing shoulders with fellow contenders. Rather, he and his father have committed to a homegrown approach, not unlike OutKast and their basement recording studio known as “The Dungeon,” 12 miles north of the Normans’ gym. “We’re really loners; you understand what I’m saying? We’ve never been really part of the crowd,” said Norman Sr., while his son offers more practical reasoning for their
“The Way You Move” His footwork is simple, but most importantly he’s calm and confident with it. He knows how to adjust, consistently playing with his body weight going
from right foot to left. Being so powerful, he’s developed this to be part of his feint game. That being said, I think he will need to be quicker with
Haney. I don’t think his footwork – calm, small footwork – will be good against Haney. I think he will need to mix his footwork speed in order to break Haney’s distance to land significant power. “So Fresh, So Clean”
Accuracy and feints. That’s the biggest attribute he’s developed in the last few fights, and this will help him tremendously with Haney. He’s more patient now. More
confident. Doesn’t feel rushed. He doesn’t feel like he needs to go hard right away. He’s learned to change his speeds.
60 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 61
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker