 He defended the title against ex-world champion Tony Tucker; however, he lost on a controversial split decision, after it appeared Norris had outboxed his giant opponent rather easily.After the Tucker performance, Norris struggled to find contenders who would risk fighting him, and was forced to move down a division, into the cruiserweights.Having won the USBA belt in that division, in 1993 Norris beat Marcelo Victor Figueroa to capture the vacant WBA cruiserweight title and went on to successfully defend the title five times, including two wins over Arthur Williams and a victory over Adolpho Washington (two future world champs).