Abraham Nova and Adam “Blunose” Lopez have the boxing world buzzing as both will move up to 130 lbs on Saturday, January 14th, live on ESPN, from Verona, New York.

“For me this fight is a must win,” said Lopez (16-3, 6 ko) 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 legend of the guys in Southern California. For many, sparring with him is a right of passage. But he has come up just short in his biggest fights, with close decision losses to Stephen Fulton and Isaac Dogboe, as well as a 7th round stoppage in a great fight with Oscar Valdez. Saturday he hopes to change that.

His opponent, Abraham Nova (21-1, 15 ko) from Albany, New York not too far from the venue, is coming off a year lay-off after a knockout loss to the ITR Boxing prospect of the year, Robeisy Ramirez. For Lopez, this is another fight with another top guy. For Nova, his first fight coming off a professional loss, and a rough one at that.

Lopez takes confidence from his time sparring with Naoya Inoue in Los Angeles. 

“[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 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.”

This is an extremely high level crossroads matchup, with two fighters coming to the ring with a lot on the line. One to watch for sure.