Bradley Flips His Pick: Why He Believes Devin Haney’s “Defensive-First” Strategy Can Mentally Break Brian Norman Jr. on November 22

Tim Bradley has changed his prediction from previously favoring WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. to knock out Devin Haney in their November 22nd chief support fight in Riyadh.

Tim says Haney (32-0, 16 KOs) can execute a “defensive-first” strategy to mentally wear down Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KOs) to win a points decision on the scorecards.

Haney’s Defensive Blueprint

• Movement
• Feints
• Dictate pace
• Control center of the ring

Bradley believes that Haney can keep the action in the center of the ring and not allow Norman Jr. to trap him against the ropes. Using movement will prevent Norman Jr. from sitting down on his shots to generate power.

“He’s going to be fighting a defensive-first kind of fight. He’s going to try and burn Brian Norman out mentally with the pre-engagements, with the movement, but he’s going to be defensively responsible. He knows Norman is going to be very strong early on,” said Tim Bradley on his channel, talking about the Devin Haney vs. Brian Norman Jr. fight on November 22.

Norman Jr. Doesn’t Fade Easily

The problem with Bradley’s analysis is that Norman Jr. hasn’t shown signs of tiring in the later rounds. He doesn’t fade late and lose power like some fighters. If you look at Norman’s fights against Giovani Santillan and Quinton Randall, he was still punching hard in the later rounds. Some of the shots he hit both fighters with would be devastating for Haney to take.

“If Devin Haney wins this fight, he’s got to be put on the pound-for-pound list. He’s joining Shakur Stevenson with three belts in three weight classes,” said Bradley.

Devin Must Engage to Impress Judges

For Haney to win, he’s going to need to engage against Norman Jr, because he’s not going to win a decision by running around like he did against Jose Ramirez on the Riyadh Seadon card earlier this year on May 2. Norman Jr. will chase him down and land big shots to impress the judges.

It’s going to be impossible for Haney to win a decision if he’s moving around, throwing jabs, and holding frequently. That’s the strategy that Devin used in his two fights against George Kambosos Jr, and fights against Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez. Those guys are not in the same league power-wise as Norman Jr.

The judges will be more impressed with the hard punches that Norman is landing, and they’ll give him every round. That’s assuming that Haney doesn’t crumble at some point in the fight.

Written by Ken Woods, Ringside Boxing Analyst covering world title fights since 2018.