There was a time soon after he beat Jose Ramirez when Devin Haney thought he would fight Jaron Ennis next.

The former undisputed lightweight champion assumed when he agreed to face Ennis that their fight would be contested at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds. Haney only pivoted toward boxing Brian Norman Jr. after Eddie Hearn, Ennis’ promoter and Haney’s former promoter, requested that Haney move all the way up to a catch weight of 152 pounds for that difficult fight.

Haney informed The Ring that he will eventually compete at the junior middleweight maximum of 154 pounds. That time hasn’t arrived, however, because he has yet to even box as a full-fledged welterweight.

The contracted catch weight for the Oakland native’s 12-round unanimous points win against Ramirez was 144 pounds.

“We were talking about doing the Boots fight at 147,” Haney told The Ring. “I agreed to do it and then they came back with a catch weight of 152, when he was a champion at 147. That was the deal-breaker. One-forty-seven was the weight he was the champion at, and that’s what I was looking to do the fight at.”

Ennis (35-0, 31 KOs, 1 NC) relinquished his Ring, IBF and WBA welterweight titles in June because he didn’t think it was safe to keep depleting himself by dropping down to 147 pounds. He knocked out overmatched Uisma Lima (14-2, 10 KOs) in the first round of his 154-pound debut October 11 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Ennis’ hometown of Philadelphia.

Haney, of Henderson, Nevada, would still like to challenge himself versus Ennis after what he expects to be a successful welterweight run. He can become champion in a third division by beating Norman for his WBO belt in the co-feature of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Right now, my main focus is Brian Norman,” Haney said. “I’m focused on him and we’ll get to all the other fights after. But I wanna become champion at 147.”

As appreciative as he is for this opportunity, Haney, 27, took a circuitous route to this title shot.

The former WBC 140-pound champ expected to face rival Ryan Garcia in a grudge rematch this fall. They agreed to fight next, but Rolando “Rolly” Romero ruined Haney’s chance at redemption when he upset Garcia by unanimous decision in the main event of The Ring’s outdoor card May 2 at Times Square in New York.

Haney then thought he secured another deal for a long-discussed showdown with Teofimo Lopez. That fight fell apart once Lopez made disparaging remarks on social media about Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and owner of The Ring.

Norman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), of Conyers, Georgia, happily accepted the biggest fight of his career after Haney (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) was left to seek yet another opponent.

“The first fight that we wanted to do was the Ryan Garcia fight,” Haney said. “And then it was the Teo fight. Once that fell out, we explored the Boots [Ennis] fight for a little bit. And the best guy was Brian Norman. That’s the fight that we made.”

Norman-Haney will be the third of four fights DAZN Pay-Per-View will offer for $59.99 in the United States and £24.99 in the UK.

The Ring ranks Norman No. 1 among its top 10 welterweight contenders for an unclaimed championship. In accordance with its ranking guidelines, Haney isn’t in The Ring’s top 10 at welterweight or junior welterweight.