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.
Terry Norris was forced to retire at the young age of 31 due to his speech slur. Terry was diagnosed with Pugilistic Dementia in 2009 . Today Terry is living in Los Angelas with his wife. Between the two of them, they have seven kids and one grandson that keep them extremely busy. Terry works out every day and enjoys long hikes, beach runs, weight training, Bikram yoga and of course Boxing. He’s working with serious fighters as well as novices and enjoys sharing his skills with the world… for real or just to lose weight and get in shape. He takes good care of himself, and appears to be in better shape now than when he was boxing! Terry is currently working on a documentary that covers his boxing life in detail and why forming a union for boxing is a must. He keeps very busy by working on his book, and his foundation “The Final Fight”. He is thankful everyday for his wife and her help and motivation.
Terry Norris turned pro on the night of August 2nd, 1986 with a first round knock out of Jose Louis Cordova. He would go on to defeat the likes of John Mugabi, Ray Leonard, Donald Curry, Meldrick Taylor and Simon Brown. Terry retired in 1998 after losing to Laurent Boudouani and later was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s class of 2005.