Brian Norman Jr stops Derrieck Cuevas to retain WBO welterweight title

Brian Norman Jr dropped and stopped Derrieck Cuevas to make a successful WBO title defense

Brian Norman Jr made a successful first defense of his WBO welterweight title, stopping Derrieck Cuevas late in the third round.

Norman (27-0, 21 KO) hadn’t fought since May 2024, when he beat Giovani Santillan to win the then-interim WBO belt, and he did get cracked a bit in the opening round, it seemed, by Cuevas (27-2-1, 19 KO).

But Norman was able to take over from there, hurting Cuevas in return and then stumbling him in the second round, before dropping him late in the third. Cuevas showed no real desire to continue, and referee Thomas Taylor stopped the fight at 2:59.

“It was just getting back into it. I’ve been out for 10 months, but it wasn’t a struggle at all,” Norman said. “Great opponent, never been stopped, only got one defeat, and you see what I did with him. Never been down, never been stopped, look what I did to him.”

“I’m not just a champ but a future legend in the game, it’s the Brian Norman Show now,” he added, saying he wants to make unification fights going forward, and that he’ll have an eye on the Jaron Ennis vs Eimantas Stanionis winner after their April 12 unification.

On the prelims, Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington stayed undefeated with a third round stoppage win over Enrique Vivas. Featherweight prospect Carrington (15-0, 9 KO) and Vivas (23-4, 12 KO) both landed some good shots in the first round, but Vivas didn’t keep his momentum and Carrington was pretty much landing at will, scoring a second round knockdown before forcing a stoppage early in the third.

Emiliano Vargas improved to 13-0 (11 KO), as the 20-year-old super lightweight knocked out Giovannie Gonzalez in the second round.