A pair of 130 lbers at career crossroads have the boxing world buzzing as Abraham Nova and Adam “Blunose” Lopez will both move up to 130 lbs to meet each on Saturday, January 14th, live on ESPN, from Verona, New York.
“For me this fight is a must win,” said Lopez on “The Expert Hour”, presented by ITRBoxing.com, on their YouTube channel. “I was never scared of any type of competition, and facing so many undefeated fighters early in my career definitely makes me feel like it gives me the edge. Fighting an undefeated fighter, or fighting someone going into their hometown, being on the b-side, you got to really have a lot of self-belief in doing that, and a lot of these fighters have really good records, a high knockout ratio, but if you look at their BoxRec, it’s like…I’d have the same type of record if I fought those guys.”
Lopez is a Southern California gym legend. In L.A. if you are good, a right of passage is sparring Adam Lopez. The problem is he hasn’t secured the big win as a pro, and Saturday he hopes to change that.
His opponent, Abraham Nova is from Albany, New York, not too far from the venue, but is coming off a year lay-off in which the best featherweight in the world, Robeisy Ramirez brutally knocked him out. Lopez feels this might be an edge for him, as he has come back from a loss, but this is Nova first fight back from a professional defeat.
Also, a key ingredient to Lopez’s camp, sparring Naoya Inoue roughly nine rounds when Inoue was in Los Angeles, California.
“[sparring Inoue] was definitely high-quality work,” said Lopez on the experience. “It let me know also that I am up there with him….[Inoue] really enjoyed my work. [Inoue] had everyone from Southern California there, every top dog you could think of was there….the first day he did two rounds with everyone. I only got two rounds and I was a little frustrated….but then the next day he told his people he wanted more rounds with him, and he pointed at me.”
The sparring left such an impression that Inoue even cut other people’s sparring short to get more rounds with Adam Lopez
“[Inoue] really enjoyed the work, he was cutting other people’s rounds short to get more rounds with me,” said Lopez. “Then, last week they asked me if I am interested in going to Japan for his camp, I guess he has a fight coming up in February or April, or something.”
Will Adam Lopez live up to his pedigree on Saturday night? Only time will tell, but this is one to watch.
