NEW YORK – Brian Norman Jr. has no idea why his harmless face-to-face meeting with Devin Haney escalated Thursday into a physical altercation.

Haney took exception to Norman putting his finger on Haney’s chest while they were handling promotional responsibilities at a hotel near Times Square for their welterweight title fight November 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The incident worsened, however, when one of Haney’s overzealous bodyguards put his hands on Norman.

The unidentified bodyguard wrestled with Norman, pulled the WBO welterweight champion’s shirt over his head and they tumbled to the ground. Norman wasn’t injured, but footage of the confrontation circulated on social media.

The Ring has learned representatives for Haney and Norman met Thursday night and discussed how to handle their interactions with more caution for the remainder of this promotion.

Their 12-round, 147-pound title fight is the co-feature of “Ring IV,” a DAZN Pay-Per-View event at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A press conference to officially announce “The Ring IV” is scheduled for Friday afternoon at Hard Rock Café New York in Times Square following a ceremonial weigh-in for “Ring III” on Saturday night at Louis Armstrong Stadium in nearby Queens.

Norman explained his version of what happened between him, Haney and Haney’s bodyguard during an interview with The Ring on Thursday night.

“I wanna say I just work here,” Norman said playfully. “I was just caught in the midst of it, just a casualty in the midst. I was just vibing and chilling. You know how life go. But the bodyguard came up, acting all funny or whatever, so he ripped my little white tee. You never rip a black man white tee – I don’t know if you know about that. But yeah, so I had flipped big dude after that. But, you know, we had to make magic happen.”

The Conyers, Georgia native thought he and Haney were respectful toward one another before their conversation shifted to how their fight came together. Their talk took a negative turn when Norman disagreed with Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), a former undisputed lightweight champion from Oakland, telling him that Haney gave Norman an opportunity when Norman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) is the defending champion.

“We be vibin’, man,” Norman explained. “We just be chilling. We just good people, come in, shake hands and show teeth. You know how the game go? I don’t know why they came with all this hostility, my brother. I think they might be a little nervous. I don’t know what it is. You know what I’m saying? Maybe they tryin’ to put all they energy on us. Nah, it’s still gonna be the same thing – you still goin’ to sleep.”

The incident hasn’t motivated Norman more to do what he was already certain would happen the night of November 22.

“It was already gonna be what it was,” Norman said. “So, this just set it in stone. But it was already gonna be a knockout.”

The odds on Haney-Norman are almost exactly even, according to FanDuel. Haney, 26, will make his debut as a full-fledged welterweight when he challenges Norman, 24, in Norman’s third defense of a WBO belt he won by knocking out previously unbeaten Giovani Santillan in the 10th round of their May 2024 bout at Pechanga Arena in Santillan’s hometown of San Diego.

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.