WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) and challenger Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) made weight today for their chief support bout on Saturday, March 29th, with the event starting at 7 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT, live on ESPN and ESPN+ at the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The main portion of Saturday’s card starts at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
Fans have been looking forward to seeing Norman Jr. finally defend his WBO belt after the impressive performance he turned in against Giovani Santillan last May. The way the 24-year-old Norman Jr. looked in that fight, he showed the potential of beating IBF champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and collecting all the titles at 147.
In Saturday’s headliner, Mikaela Mayer defends her WBO welterweight title against Sandy Ryan in a rematch scheduled for 10 rounds.
Main card
Mikaela Mayer 146 vs. Sandy Ryan 145.5
Brian Norman Jr. 146.7 vs. Derrieck Cuevas 146.3
Prelim
Bruce Carrington 125.3 vs. Jose Enrique Vivas 125.8
Emiliano Fernando Vargas 138.6 vs. Giovannie Gonzalez 138.3
Tiger Johnson 146 vs. Kendo Castañeda 146.8
Dedrick Crocklem 128.6 vs. Dionne Ruvalcaba 128.8
Emmanuel Chance 119.4 vs. Miguel Guzman 118.7
“One of my beefs with Brian Norman’s style is sometimes he jumps into shots and he gets head-butted and he gets cut open,” said coach Greg Hackett to YSM Sports Media about WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr.
“I want to see him be a little more cleaner and box some more. I think he’ll be successful if he boxes some more. Every round doesn’t have to be a rough and tough one. I think if he does that, he’ll be okay.
“His fathn doing a good job of campaigning for him, making sure we know his name, but we need something to go behind that. It’s like if you get a candy wrapper. It’s a real nice candy wrapper, but the candy isn’t that good. I’m not saying that’s what it is, but that’s what it appears, if he don’t go out there and put on a show,” said Hackett about Norman Jr.