Buchanan Stops Norman

By Boxing News - 06/27/2008 - Comments

norman463335.jpgBy Chet Mills: In a long overdue rematch, super middleweight Henry Buchanan (17-1, 12 KOs) once again stopped Brian Norman (16-8, 4 KOs), this time in the 9th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Wednesday night at the Playboy Mansion, in Beverly Hills, California. After a fairly contest first three rounds of the fight, the 29 year-old Buchanan pulled away from Norman, dominating every round until the bitter end in the 9th round, when Buchanan tagged Norman with a big left hand to the body followed by a powerful right uppercut that sent Norman, 29, sprawling into the bottom ring ropes where he hung briefly until the referee Lou Moret moved in and halted the bout at 1:02 of the 9th round.

Both fighters showed good boxing ability for the most part, particularly Buchanan with his long jab and excellent combinations ,was a pleasure to watch. However, he tended to be on the lazy side for many of the rounds, choosing not to really work hard until the last 30 seconds of the round at which time he would unload with a dizzying flurry of shots and have Norman reeling. It’s unfortunate that Buchanan can’t seem to fight hard all the time because he might some day break the top 20 if he could fight in this manner. However, given his ripe age of 29, I tend to have my doubts about his future potential.

The first round was close, with both fighters trading shots back and forth. Buchanan, however, seemed to get the better of Norman on most of the occasions due to his slightly better work rate and speed. Like I said, it was close though and it could have gone either way. Norman looked good as well, throwing big shots and showing good defense. For a fighter that had lost two out of his last three fights going into Wednesday’s fight, I thought he showed remarkable ability at times in the fight. Unfortunately, he wasn’t always putting together, allowing his defense and his punch output to drop off during crucial moments in the fight.

Norman appeared to win rounds two and three with his good work with his left hand, which he used to nail Buchanan with constantly in the rounds. Buchanan made it easy for him, though, because he often held his lead hand low, almost inviting Norman to tag him at times; And, he did, again and again.

In the 4th round, Buchanan fought well during the early portion of the round, in which he tagged Norman with some big right hands and left hooks. However, Buchanan started to admire his work, standing and watching Norman’s reaction after hitting him as if expecting him to drop to the canvas. This effectively allowed Norman to tag him with big right hands on a number of occasions in the round, tagging him cleanly each time and causing the crowd to cheer loudly.

In the 5th round, Norman did some good work for most of the round, hitting Buchanan with nice left hands. However, with 30 seconds to go in the round, Buchanan attacked Norman fiercely and hit him with a flurry of mostly unanswered shots as Norman stood with his back against the ropes trying to block shots.

The 7th round was close, and hard to tell who won the round. Norman like usual attacked well in the three-fourths of the round, hitting Buchanan often with good shots, but like in the last rounds, Buchanan attacked hard in the last 20-30 seconds of the round and did enough, perhaps, to win the round.

In the last 20 seconds of the 8th round, Buchanan hurt Norman with a big left hand. He then attacked Norman for the remaining seconds of the round and hit him with a truck load of punches, but Norman held up well and didn’t go down.

Early in the 9th round, Buchanan tagged Norman with a perfect left hand to the body that seemed to freeze Norman for a second, which was all Buchanan needed to land a huge right uppercut that snapped Norman’s head back, sending him flying face first into the bottom ropes. The referee Lou Moret ran over and immediately stopped the fight at 1:20 of the round, even though it seemed more of a case of Norman being trapped between the ropes than actually hurt. It’s unclear whether he could have continued fighting, but he certainly looked good enough to finish the round from what I saw of him.