Abraham Nova moved to the featherweight division in 2021 due to opportunities he believed he could capitalize on at the 126-pound barrier.
A fifth-round KO loss to Robeisy Ramirez in his last fight convinced Nova he needed to move back up to junior lightweight. The Albany, New York native will return to the 130-pound division on Saturday night when he defeats Adam Lopez in a 10-round bout on undercard Efe Ajagba-Stephan Shaw at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York meets .
Nova (21-1, 15 KOs) and Lopez (16-3, 6 KOs, 1 NC) from Glendale, Calif., will box in the final of seven bouts that ESPN+ will stream before coverage for the Ajagba-Shaw and on ESPN switches Guido Vianello-Jonnie Rice fight at 10 p.m. ET.
“Adam Lopez, he’s a complete, all-round fighter,” Nova told BoxingScene.com. “He’s a great fighter. I expect nothing but a good fight from him. He has been tested. He was with good fighters. This will really show why I’m not the other fighters he fought. You know he’s a good fighter but I feel like I’ve reached a higher level than him. I’m on a different level when it comes to the competition he’s faced. But glory be to him – he is a good fighter.”
Lopez’s losses have all been against current or former world champions Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), Oscar Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs) and Isaac Dogboe (24-2, 15 KOs). Nova has lost only to Ramirez (11-1, 7 KOs), a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and he’s hoping a win over Lopez will push him into a title shot.
“Winning this fight will show people that what happened was a — I wouldn’t say a mistake, but something you can’t look past me at,” Nova said. “Hopefully I can make a title fight at 130. I would still like to fight [Emanuel] Navarrete, Oscar Valdez. But my main focus is on Adam Lopez.”
Nova, who will face Lopez on his 29th birthday, feels healthier and stronger than before meeting Ramirez in a featherweight bout televised June 18 from the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Ramirez drilled Nova with a left hand that slapped Nova flat on the back, causing referee Charlie Fitch to stop their fight at 2:20 of the fifth round.
“In that fight, I don’t know how to explain it, but I didn’t feel good,” Nova recalled. “There were a few times that I didn’t want to take the fight because of my feelings. But being a fighter, I took up the fight and ignored everything else. When I went into this fight I just survived to be honest. I was dehydrated, I was weak and I wasn’t fighting at my best. I can’t really say anything about what I learned and stuff like that because I wasn’t physically there.”
In hindsight, Nova realizes he should have pulled out of the Ramirez match.
“I’ve wanted to retire a few times,” Nova said. “I didn’t tell anyone. I kept it to myself because I knew they would pull me out of the fight and I didn’t want that to happen. I really felt like I was different, that I could do it, but I realized I’m human like everyone else.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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