Brian Norman Jr. intends to make up for lost time.

Rather than waiting around to re-engage in negotiations for a title unification clash with Jaron “Boots” Ennis, Norman and his team have agreed to fight for the second time in less than three months. The Ring has confirmed Norman will defend his WBO 147-pound championship against Japan’s Jin Sasaki on June 19 in Tokyo.

ESPN+ will stream Norman-Sasaki as a main event from Ota-City General Gymnasium as part of its expiring output deal with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., Norman’s promoter. Boxing Scene was first to report Norman-Sasaki is in the works.

The two sides have exchanged contracts. Assuming there aren’t any snags at the 11th hour, the deal will be finalized soon and Norman-Sasaki will be officially announced.

The hard-hitting Norman (27-0, 21 KOs, 1 NC), of Conyers, Georgia, will be a significant favorite to beat Sasaki (19-1-1, 17 KOs), the WBO’s number two contender for his title. Alexis Rocha is the WBO’s number one contender in the welterweight division, but Norman has the flexibility to make an optional title defense because the WBO hasn’t designated Rocha (25-2-1, 16 KOs) as its mandatory challenger for Norman’s championship.

Norman, 24, is The Ring’s third-ranked welterweight contender for Ennis, who owns The Ring, IBF and WBA belts.

The 23-year-old Sasaki, who is rated No. 7 by The Ring, has won seven consecutive fights since he settled for a six-round majority draw with Japan’s Kotaro Sekine in July 2022. Sekine (9-1-1, 8 KOs) was 3-0 when he drew with Sasaki.

Norman stopped Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-2-1, 19 KOs) in the third round of their March 29 bout at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. His preference is to remain as active as possible following that brief bout because another hand injury, which required surgery last fall, caused a 10-month layoff before he knocked out Cuevas.

Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter, called out Norman following Ennis’ impressive technical knockout of former WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis on April 12 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Hearn challenged Norman to “grow a set of balls” and show some ambition because Norman’s team turned down last summer what would’ve been by far a career-high payday to face Ennis on November 9 at Wells Fargo Center in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia. Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) instead defeated Ukraine’s Karen Chukhadzhian (24-3, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision that night in an unnecessary rematch that was forced upon Ennis by the IBF, which strangely installed Chukhadzhian as the mandatory challenger for Ennis’ title less than two years after Chukdhadzhian was shut out by Ennis on all three scorecards in their first 12-rounder at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

The Ring has been informed Norman will earn a career-high purse for fighting Sasaki in the challenger’s home country, though not in the neighborhood of the reported $1.7 million package he was eventually offered to box Ennis five months ago. If Norman defeats Sasaki and emerges from their fight healthy, his team would be willing to resume negotiations for a fight with Ennis.

Hearn mentioned August or September as the time frame for Ennis’ return to the ring. Ennis’ goal is to become boxing’s second undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era before he moves up to the junior middleweight division.

The 27-year-old Ennis would – who stopped Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs, 1 NC) after six one-sided rounds – would need to beat Norman and WBC champ Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) to accomplish his mission. He was recently ordered to make a required defense of his WBA belt against Uzbekistan’s Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs), but Ennis is the WBA’s “super” welterweight champion and unification fights typically trump mandatory defenses in order of importance.