Photo: Mike Greenhill
On his Facebook page, Hall of Fame promoter J Russell Peltz gave a great look behind the scenes look at last night’s upset win by super featherweight Avery “A Plus” Sparrow (9-1, 3 KOs) over the highly touted Jose “Wonder Boy” Lopez (18-2-1, 13 KOs) last night.
“I got a call from Robert Diaz of Golden Boy Promotions on Nov. 21, asking if I had a 130-pounder to step in and box Jose “Wonder Boy” Lopez, of Puerto Rico, on Nov. 30 in Oxon Hill, MD. Lopez was 19-1-1, 13 K0s, known as a big puncher and he owned a couple of minor league belts. I immediately offered Avery Sparrow (8-1, 3 K0s), of Philly, without even asking Avery. Diaz wanted someone with more experience but I told him not to worry. Then I called Avery to make sure he was in some kind of shape.
“About an hour later Avery came to my office and watched some video of the wild-swinging, but hard-hitting Lopez. He watched about 20 seconds, then told me to make the fight. I asked him if he wanted to see more video and he said no. He never said he didn’t want to fight a Golden Boy fighter (actually Cotto Promotions) on a Golden Boy show and he never said that he cared that he was the so-called B side or worried about walking to the ring first or being introduced first and he never said he needed more time and he never complained that Lopez had 21 fights to his nine and he never moaned about having to run around and get medicals over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“At one point I thought he was taking the fight because he needed the money and the holidays were coming up. Boy, was I wrong!
“So Avery Sparrow went to the MGM National Harbor Casino Tuesday afternoon with his crew and I met them there Wednesday and on Thursday night on ESPN 23-year-old Avery Sparrow went out there and gave the finest performance of his young career, completely dominating the heavily favored Lopez and winning a unanimous 10-round decision that was nowhere near as close as the official scorecards (96-94, 96-94, 97-93).
“Sparrow lost two rounds at the most and he fought like a seasoned pro, landing shots from all angles, exhibiting wonderful defense, slipping and sliding and moving left and right all night and fighting with incredible confidence and never once looking gassed the way you would think a last-minute sub would look in the first 10-rounder of his career.
“I guess you could sum this up by saying ‘Only the Sparrow knows.'”