‘It was a different world, but after some time, it just became natural,’ Jackson recalled. ‘I really didn’t take it as being a superstar, it was a job that I loved in a sport that I respected, and that is why it was so impactful for me. Sometimes you don’t realize you might be fulfilling your destiny just by doing the things you want to do, but I took a risk and it worked out.’
And that is what Jackson hopes will resonate with youngsters at home while he is in New York this summer at the official Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
‘More than anything, I want our young people to know that when you put your faith in something, you don’t just read history, you become history,’ he said. ‘Thinking about where I could have ended up, I know now that I was able to be something because of the people I surrounded myself with, who told me that I could do my best and that I shouldn’t be afraid to fail. They told me that if I wanted to make a difference, I could and that I shouldn’t stop trying. Life will work out if that’s exactly what you keep in mind.’ The St Thomas Source online article 12th December 2018, ‘Julian Jackson Elected to Boxing Hall of Fame’
[8.6] TERRY NORRIS 56-47(31)-9: The New York Times -
A Champion Who’s Fighting Obscurity: The road here is long and sometimes desolate, and a wrong turn can lead to nowhere. But eventually, the highway from San Diego bends toward a paved offramp, which leads suddenly to a lonely dirt path, which winds its way past a house and toward a broad yellow barn on a small hill.
Within the walls of the two-story barn – seemingly lost in the mountains near the Cleveland National Forest – the World Boxing Council’s superwelterweight champion, Terry Norris, has been preparing for the fight of his life for more than three months. It is not a fight he takes lightly, since a victory will surely springboard Norris from obscurity to stardom.
So he wakes every morning and runs, lifts weights, spars, trains and then sleeps again, knowing that he will gain instant celebrity if he steps into the Garden ring on Saturday and beats his opponent, Sugar Ray Leonard, the aging but capable former champion.
The task is an interesting one for the 23-year-old Norris, who grew up idolizing Leonard, now 34 and somehow still fighting. When Norris speaks of Leonard, his remarks are a blend of admiration and tough talk. He was 9 years old when Leonard won an Olympic gold medal, but so many years have passed that Norris now believes his time has arrived.
‘There is no way he can win this fight,’ Norris said on a recent afternoon at his camp. ‘His only advantage is his ring smarts, but I have all the other advantages: hand speed, foot speed, power. He’s had quite a few fights – big fights – but I’ve been through so much, too.’
What Norris does not have is the marquee attraction and the respect he believes he will receive by beating Leonard. Although he has been WBC champion since a first-round knockout of John (the Beast) Mugabi last March, he remains, for the most part, an unknown to all but the most ardent followers of boxing. He retained his title last July with a 12-round victory over Rene Jacquot of France and is 26-3 with 14 knockouts.
Norris’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, said confidently: ‘This is not a Rocky saga. Terry isn’t coming out of nowhere. He’s the champ; Ray Leonard is the challenger.’
Perhaps Norris is unrecognized because he has trained and lived the last five years at the ranch owned by his manager, Joe Sayatovich, who converted a portion of his 30-acre property into a training facility called First Fighter Squadron.
Situated in the Cameron Valley less than five miles from the Mexican border, Sayatovich’s ranch is a haven for a half dozen young boxers, including Norris, who followed his older brother, Orlin Norris junior, to the facility and never left.
Sayatovich has nurtured the careers of the Norris brothers, and his role in the Leonard bout is significant since he turned down a flat guarantee from the co-promoter, Mike Trainer, for a percentage of the package. If the proceeds from the Garden show and cable television receipts are large, Norris and Sayatovich will reap a big purse. If they are not, Norris will have lost a big payday.
‘My partners and I have been gambling in this business for 15 years,’ Sayatovich said, ‘so why should we stop now?’
The Norris-Sayatovich-Sanchez alliance, however, does not see the fight as a gamble at all. Leonard only began training for the bout in late December. In a sense, Norris has been preparing all his life.
‘If he had to fight in a week, he’d be ready,’ Sanchez said. ‘He’s the kind of guy you have to pull back. He hasn’t peaked, but it’s a matter of keeping him sharp.’
Are they taking Leonard too lightly? Perhaps. ‘He doesn't worry us,’ Sanchez said. ‘It’s not going to be an easy fight, but he doesn’t worry us. If Terry was going to fight Ray Leonard when Leonard was in his prime in ’79, it would be an even fight. But Leonard is 34 years old now.’
Norris, though, retains a large measure of respect for his opponent, the result of having watched Leonard since his youth and having dreamed about the fight, literally, since it became a reality.
‘I've had several dreams about it,’ he said, ‘but I’m always the victor. I come out on top. But they’ve been long, hard fights and gone to decisions. You can’t overlook him just because of his age. He’s still a great fighter. I know I can knock him out, but I’m not looking for that. I’m in shape to go 12 rounds.’
Norris was 9 when he fell in love with boxing, but he said his path was derailed for several years in high school in Lubbock Texas where he was born and raised. He was an exceptional baseball player and batted .417, attracting a number of college scholarship offers. But a brawl, which he said was triggered by a racial epithet, caused him to lose interest quickly.
‘We were playing another team one day,’ Norris recalled, ‘and there were some racial comments made toward me. I was a little thrown off by it. I rushed the guy who said them, and their whole team jumped on me. I put three guys in the hospital, which was the bad thing of it. People said things like, ‘Maybe this guy’s a troublemaker,’ so a lot of my scholarships fell through.
‘I played another game after that, but my interest in baseball just wasn’t there anymore. It was like the misunderstanding threw me to the turf.’
It also pointed Norris back toward boxing, which he began to pursue in earnest after following his brother, a ranked heavyweight, to Sayatovich’s ranch.
‘When he got here, he was 18,’ Sayatovich said. ‘He's become an adult in those five years.’
Norris also got married, bought his own home in nearby Alpine – he has never strayed too far from the ranch – and became a father. Even when he is not in training for a bout, he comes to the big yellow barn six days a week to work out.
‘He’s sacrificed more than anybody else we’ve had up here,’ Sanchez said. ‘It’s like he says, ‘I can enjoy things afterward’.’
By his own admission, Norris frequently pushes himself too much. In preparation for Leonard, he is sparring 12 rounds every other day and lifting weights, something considered a taboo in the fight game.
‘I have a tendency to work myself too much,’ he conceded. ‘I don’t see myself that way, but they do. I am a workaholic, and they have to slow me down, but that's typical of me. I look at all my opponents as great fighters, and I always want to be at my best for them. I don’t want to have an excuse.’
There will be no trouble viewing Leonard, who has never been knocked out, as great.
‘Beating Leonard, you don’t have any idea what it would mean to me,’ he said. ‘My title is at stake, but the respect from everybody in the whole world is at stake, too. That’s what I want – the respect – so that when I walk outside, people will know who I am, not see me as just a shadow.
‘Right now, nobody knows me, but I’m the champion. I’m Terry Norris. After this fight, it’ll change.’ The New York Times article 5 February 1991, ‘A Champion Who’s Fighting Obscurity’