In the hours after Terence Crawford’s victory over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez which anointed him history’s first three-weight undisputed champion, one of his old quotes spread like wildfire.

It had nothing to do with his Mexican opponent, being pound-for-pound No. 1 or any of boxing’s inherent braggadocio whatsoever. It was quite the opposite.

“I never sold my soul to get where I am now,” it started. “They said I had no personality and wanted me to act like a clown but I said ‘I’m gonna be me’ and if you don’t like it, so be it. And look where I’m at now for doing it my way.”

Crawford has never been one to court the media and has, in fact, taken a pretty dim view of it altogether. As his quote insinuates, there have been promoters along the way who have instructed him to open up more. To play the game. He never did but in the end he still won.

It was the sort of quote which would have struck a chord with the man who took over from him as the WBO welterweight champion, Brian Norman Jr. The 24-year-old has enjoyed a stealthy and undefeated rise to the top table of the 147 pound division but the volume around him will crank up significantly should he beat Devin Haney at ANB Arena, Riyadh on November 22 at 'The Ring IV: Night of the Champions'.

He initially won the WBO interim title with an impressive 10th-round KO victory over Giovani Santillan, who was 32-0 before running into Norman. A few months later, he was officially elevated to his position as full champion when Crawford moved to 154 pounds and he made the first defence of that belt with another big win, this time stopping Derrieck Cuevas inside three on March 29. But it was his next victory, just three months later, that made the most noise.

Norman travelled to Tokyo, Japan to take on Jin Sasaki, who had been hailed as another potential star of the country’s current golden era. However, after being dropped twice in the first round, Sasaki was left out cold on his back within a minute of the fifth round starting. It was the sort of Knockout of the Year contender that reverberates around social media and, finally, Norman was getting his flowers.

“Until that night, I was definitely under-appreciated,” Norman tells The Ring. “And that’s because of me.

“The reason being is I’m not like anybody else; I’m not very brash and boastful. I’m not very arrogant, I’m not very loud spoken and I’m not out there like that. That’s not really my style, I’m too respectful.

“And another thing about me is I don’t really care about marketing. I’m not out here trying to post a whole bunch of stuff every day. I’m not out here trying to do anything special. I just like putting in my work and chilling with my people.

“But I actually love how that is. I like letting my work speak for itself and, after that Jin Sasaki knockout, that’s when everything started to get bigger.

“Not because of some interview, not because of some video in the gym, not because of who I’m hanging around with but simply because of my work. I like that; that’s what kind of man I am.”

There was a time when Eddie Hearn, who was attempting to make a world title unification between the young Georgian and his client Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis at the time, suggested that Brian Norman’s commercial appeal would be damaged simply by the fact that he’s called Brian Norman. So far, as one of boxing’s youngest world champions who is on the cusp of a lucrative showdown with Haney, that has not proven to be the case.

“But even still,” he says. “I'm going to carry my same self into this next fight with David Haney. I'm going to knock him out. And guess what? Everything's going to get even bigger.

“I'm going to be the exact same person I am right now and say ‘hey, how you doing? Everything good? Everything good with me too’ and I’ll keep it pushing.

“Even though it has all gotten bigger since I beat Sasaki, personally my life has not changed at all. What am I supposed to do? Go and buy some crazy stuff? Go hang around a whole bunch of women? Go hang around the clubs or something like that? Nah, that ain’t really me.

“I go take care of what’s in front of me and right now that’s Devin Haney. I’m going to take care of that as well.”

Norman and his next opponent have had very different careers in terms of their exposure to the glare of the media spotlight but there are also strange parallels too.

Firstly, they both cut their teeth on club shows in Mexico as wide-eyed American teenagers. Haney’s first outing there, in Tijuana on December, 11, 2015, ended in 33 seconds. Norman’s first outing across the border, at the Gimnasio de Mexicali in 2018, lasted just 27. They would both end up with double-figure outings in Mexico before returning to America permanently to make their names.

“Those Mexico fights,” Norman says. “Shoot, they are exactly how you would imagine.

“That first fight was outside but it was packed. Them folks love boxing and the more I was out there catching bodies the more they just kept loving me. I had a wonderful time there and it built up a whole lot of character and that’s why I have no problem going into enemy territory - I came up in it.”

As well as that Mexican grounding, both Norman and Haney are notable for the central roles of their fathers in their careers. The two dads have already been going back and forth and it is likely that they will do most of the talking during fight week ahead of November 22.

“There are a lot of similarities between us two,” Norman says of Haney. “So we know what Devin and Bill Haney are going through.

“Also just look at the dynamics with me and my father and then Devin and his father. Who is the loudest in both of our dynamics and things of that nature?

“We saw it in the Regis Prograis fight how Devin listened to his father. He could have pushed it but his pop said ‘no, don’t do it, just keep boxing’. I do the same with my pops. Whatever he tells me to do inside the ring, I go out and do it.

“So we as the fighters are doing our part. It is now all about the game plan from the coaches - it is all coming down to the coaching on this one.”

The undefeated pair boast a combined record of 60-0 but few can forget the night when Haney was dropped three times at the hands of an overweight and Ostarine-fuelled Ryan Garcia on a tumultuous night for ‘The Dream’. Given Garcia’s failed drug tests and subsequent ban, the result on April 20, 2024 was changed to a no contest but Norman believes the mental scars may still be prevalent.

“It will have a lasting impression,” Norman says. “But we don’t know which way it could go. It could go good, or it could go bad.

“My point is, I’ve seen people turn against me in the past as well. I could have just fallen down and disappeared from the earth and y’all never would have known about me.

“But I said forget that, I’m going to show y’all something real quick. It can go either way so that all depends on Devin.”