Born Terry Wayne Norris in Lubbock, TX on June 17, 1967. A star baseball player during his high school years, Norris bypassed a career on the diamond for one in the ring, amassing a stellar 291-4 amateur record.
"Terrible" Terry turned pro in 1986 and defeated Quincy Taylor before TKO'ing Steve Little for the NABF junior middleweight title. In 1989 he challenged the hard-punching Julian Jackson for the WBA title, but was halted in the second round. The resilient Norris bounced back to score a sensational one-round kayo over John "The Beast" Mugabi for the WBC junior middleweight belt. An impressive string of 10 successful defenses followed, including wins over Donald Curry, Jorge Castro, Carl Daniels, Meldrick Taylor, Maurice Blocker, Troy Waters and Sugar Ray Leonard. In his 11th title defense, he was upset by Simon Brown via 4th round TKO, but regained the title with a 12-round decision in the rematch six months later. Norris next engaged in a bizarre trilogy with Luis Santana that saw him lose the title and the rematch via disqualification before winning the third bout with a 2nd round TKO. In 1995 he unified the WBC and IBF belts when he won a 12-round decision over Paul Vaden. Wins over Vincent Pettway, Alex Rios and Nick Rupa followed.
Stripped of the IBF championship for refusal to meet the mandatory challenger, Norris defended his WBC recognition against Keith Mullings on December 6, 1997 and was stopped in the 9th stanza. Norris would lose his next two contests to Dana Rosenblatt and Laurent Boudouani before hanging his gloves up with a 47-9 (31 KOs) pro ledger.
Norris, whose brother Orlin, Jr. was the WBA cruiserweight champion, was a gifted boxer with a tremendous left hook.
Born: June 17, 1967
Bouts: 56
Won: 47
Lost: 9
Draw: 0
KOs: 31
Induction: 2005
Terry Norris
