Top Rank VP: "No One Will Top Norman’s Knockout"

Carl Moretti, Vice President of Top Rank, shared his thoughts on Brian Norman’s (28-0, 22 KOs) recent victory over Jin Sasaki (19-2-1, 17 KOs), where the WBO Welterweight Champion defended his title with a stunning finish.

“I think Norman did an excellent job keeping his composure, even after scoring two knockdowns in the first round. You could see his opponent started to panic, and Brian didn’t want to get caught by anything wild, so he stuck to the plan. You could see him closing in, breaking his opponent down, and then — that knockout. It was great to see such maturity and control throughout the fight.

Sasaki was extremely confident and eager to challenge Brian. And when you're fighting abroad, you never know how a fighter will react. But full credit to Brian — he stuck to the game plan down to the smallest details.

No one will top that knockout — that’s the knockout of the year. It’s going into every highlight reel, people will be watching it over and over, and that’s what the public wants. We weren’t exactly in Times Square, but this was a real show,” said Moretti.

On June 19, Brian Norman successfully defended his WBO welterweight title by knocking out Jin Sasaki in the fifth round. Norman had dropped Sasaki twice in the opening round before delivering a crushing left hook that ended the bout. Sasaki had to be carried out on a stretcher.

It was later revealed that Sasaki suffered a temporary memory loss, forgetting events leading up to the fight — including his own training camp.

Photo: Naoki Fukuda