Sparrow to face Nova on June 25th

One of the summer cards Top Rank Boxing had planned originally placed Abraham Nova against Toka Kahn Clary on June 25th in Las Vegas. Now, a new challenger was named instead for Nova, as Avery Sparrow will step in his place.

Dan Rafael for Boxingscene.com reported Sunday evening the matchup.

Nova was initially scheduled to fight Toka Kahn Clary in a 10-round bout at a contract weight of 132 pounds on the undercard of the bantamweight bout between Australian contender Jason Moloney (20-1, 17 KOs) and former junior featherweight world title challenger Oscar Negrete (19-2-2, 7 KOs).

Instead, Clary, for unknown reasons, on Thursday backed out of the contest. That opened the door for Sparrow to replace him.

Sparrow Agrees To Face Abraham Nova in June 25 ESPN Co-Feature https://t.co/A2rsGVuWAK pic.twitter.com/dtJWU63Yo7

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) June 7, 2020

“It’s verbally agreed to,” Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman told BoxingScene on Sunday. “I think (Kahn Clary) and Sparrow are both tough opponents, but to Nova’s credit, he knows what’s at stake being in the semi-main event with the exposure he will be getting on ESPN. Nova knows that he has to fight a capable guy. And you know what? Nova has never turned down one guy yet. He’s willing to fight any champion also.”

Sparrow (10-1,3 KOs) was last scheduled to take on Ryan Garcia last September in California but was arrested by U.S. Marshals before the weigh-in on a warrant from Pennsylvania steering from a domestic dispute.

Speaking with Cynthia Conte when it happened, Michelle Rosado (a.k.a “Raging Babe”) who was there, lays out that whole breakdown as she was around Sparrow and how the U.S. Marshalls greeted them at your friendly neighborhood Target to pick him up below.

Nova (18-0, 14 KOs), 26, will be in his second fight since signing with Top Rank, which co-promotes him with Murphys Boxing, in December. Nova, in his last contest, blasted out fight veteran Pedro Navarrete in four rounds on the Eleider Alvarez-Michael Seals card back in January.

“We expect it to be a tough test for Nova,” manager David McWater of Split-T Management told BoxingScene. “Sparrow is the bigger guy and is a very talented fighter who would be a contender if not for his outside of boxing issues.”

If Russel Peltz and Golden Boy can’t finalize their end of the deal or Sparrow has any other issues, Goodman mentioned in the report he has “other guys on hold” to step in to face Nova. Given in the story that Sparrow is in serious debt, expect Sparrow to finalize this deal soon.

“I’ll have the paperwork back (on Monday), but I have to work out a deal with Golden Boy because Sparrow owes them $15,000 because of the two fights that he was supposed to have with them that didn’t happen,” Sparrow’s promoter Russell Peltz stated.

Sounds like 15 thousand reasons we’ll see Sparrow-Nova on June 25th.