All Episodes

April 24, 2025 11 mins
18-year-old boxer Pryce Sparrow and his dad Kelvin visited my studio following Pryce's first professional boxing match. He won and it all came together during the 12 hours leading up to the fight.

Listen to both Sparrows tell the story! 
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Terry Miners here on News Radio eight forty whas Joe
Elliott will be filling in for me tomorrow. He actually
helped me out earlier in the day at the beginning
of the show today, we had a new banner hung
on the side of building next to I sixty five
at the Kentucky Expo Center showing the band my Morning jacket,

(00:21):
and the band members were there. We had a good
time celebrating that for the Hometown Heroes series. So what
happens in Hometown Heroes is people who rise to prominence,
are connected to this area for one reason or another,
are celebrated. And so I'm thinking already in my mind
one of the banners coming down the road is going

(00:42):
to say Price Sparrows Louisville Hometown Heroes banner. You know Price,
He was here a couple of weeks ago. Welcome back,
Good to see you, to see you were here. We
were discussing your first professional bout as a boxer happened
here not long ago. And your dad, Calvin, good to

(01:06):
see you again, good to have good to have you
guys here. I just wanted to see you and take
a good look at you and congratulate you. Man to
man on your first victory.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Did that feel crazy good when it was over?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, it felt good. It felt amasy when it was over,
hearing my name called. I won by unanimous decision.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yep, feel good. You and I were discussing all this
stuff you've done, all this training. Roy Jones Junior saw
you and it was just like, we gotta get this
kid moving on. He's eighteen years old. I don't mean
to be derisive dismiss him by saying kid, but your
dad understands this. You're a young man who's on the rise.

(01:46):
So you have this victory. But you and I talked
about all the training and then the wearing of the
headgear versus now that you're a pro, there is no
head gear. First off, how did that feel taking shots
without a head gear?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
It felt it definitely feel a different. You know, I
went out there the first round, then I got hit.
I got hit pretty good with the overhand right, and
I was going to get a strong opponent, So that
was kind of like my welcome to the pros moment.
But you know I bounced back and got back right
within seconds.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, so it takes a few seconds. And then you
did you back out just a little bit and just
let your head yeah, settle.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I backed out through the combination, got him off me,
and then we was back like nothing happened.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Man Roy was here with us and talking and he
described how effective you are in terms of knowing when
to like fire and when to just chill a little bit,
just let her not chill, but slow it down a
little bit so that you don't spend it all right away.
Did were you? Were you able to stick to that
sort of a game plan?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes, so I was.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
He was a stronger opponent, so I had to, you know,
get in there when I had to and then get out.
Just know when to go and when not to basically
what Roy was saying. So I implemented that a lot in
the fight.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
And did you have a sense that you were winning?
It was a unanimous decision. Did you have a sense
in the second round, third, fourth? When? When did you
have a sense that things were going well?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Uh? Late in the first round, I was like, yeah,
I got him.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
I felt his best punch within like thirty seconds into
the first round. I was like, he hit me with
his best punch. I ain't go down. He in trouble,
you know, so, but I definitely knew for sure for
sure after the third round when I dropped him. I
dropped him in the third round. I was like, yeah,
I got this.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Did he say anything after that? Was he a talker?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
No he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
He didn't say anywhere. Now, Dad, Calvin, let me bring
into this there. There was a lot of shifting sands
going on here, so we did. We weren't quite sure
exactly how this was going to work out. The card
was changing different people on different flights, so you didn't
get to fully prep for this guy with much advanced notice, right, No,
we didn't.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Actually we had me you know, it was like three
or four changes on price of ponies. One coach agreed
to the fight. Another coach say, no, we can't fight
this guy. He's a highly decorated amateur fighter. He got
a lot of you know what I mean, just experience
behind him.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
And Roy's talking about him.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, yeah, and Roy had behind him. So that's a
whole nother story in itself there. And so the night
of the fight, the night before the fight, about eleven o'clock,
eleven thirty, we was at a dinner where I was
at a dinner with you know, what I mean, our
mayor of Radcliffe and a couple of CEOs and I
got a text message just never said nothing in the
fighter pulled out.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Now I'm like, oh my.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
God, this can't happen before the night before the big event.
So now we scrambling, like we got to get Priced
about so so you.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Think the other people the other camp, they did some
homework and Price is too tough. You know, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
I can't really go into it, but you know, we
have our speculations. We know Price is the top guy
the country. No Price is a top fighter, and the
only thing we can't say is you know, whatever they say.
It was the reason we just go with it. But
we had to make an adjustment and get an opponent.
Price opponent was gonna be two to zero, but we
ended up having to fight a guy that was seven

(05:10):
and one.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
I saw that, and that was like seven and one
is serious business.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Very serious. I got so many calls from you know,
people with the commission, just top level guys, you know
what I mean, people in good positions like spell, Are
you sure Price need to take this fight because it's
a dangerous guy, you know what I mean? For his
first fight, you know, he's strong, he a grown man.
You know, he got eight nine different fights and the
one you know, he a Canadian guy, so he had

(05:35):
won like a championship over there. So I'm like, you know,
I showed Price to video because in the amateurs, you know,
I'm pretty much making all his calls. So now we pros.
He the boss. So at that point, you know, I
showed him the video and asked, probably, hey, do you
want to fight this guy? Within ten seconds of watching
the video, probably said, Daddy, make the fight.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
What did you see in that video?

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Price, Well, I've seen he was a pretty strong and
good opponent. But you know, I was, like I've been
doing in ten years. I don't want to fight no slouch.
It's either him or nothing, and I ain't going for nothing.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
So look up your rank change. I mean, that's astounding
what's happened. How quickly you climb, you get that first victory.
And because the quality of the opponent.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Right, yes, it's sort of the same way like college
basketball football. The stronger opponents you face, the more you
get in the rankings. So schedule they immediately after that
fight gave him a two star rating out of five
and out of twenty five hundred boxes in the world,
and that's not all the fighters, that's just the rank
rankings of that twenty five hundred they got price rank

(06:39):
I think now one hundred and thirty eight.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, I'm looking at it on my screen. And then
in the United States it says he's number thirty nine
out of four to sixteen of.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Four hundred and sixteen top fighters. He number thirty nine
off of that one fight. Because usually what fighters do,
they don't fight a fighter like that until like year two.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Right, you know things, get your feet wet, get the
feel of all the noise, the difference, so you handle
that masterfully. I mean, that's that's that's gotta feel good.
Tell me about the next day. To wake up and
think to yourself, I'm a boxer.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
My head hurts, yeah, man, I was sore. I had
two black eyes and my hips is hurting.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
I can see your your left eye it's still the
mark is still there, but yeah, the other one's blackened
as well.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yes, sir, Yeah, but no, it was you know, I
felt I felt like I was in a fight the
day before.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's exactly how I felt. It's very sure, but better.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Now, what is the remedy for black eyes. By the way,
I don't remember. It's just ice bag Ice.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
It's really that's a great question. But the remedy is weird, weird,
like you took it, you know what I mean, Like,
that's what we do. We don't want to you know,
the fighters don't want nobody to give them no plastic surgery.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Now.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
I want to weld my womb because I want to
let you know what kind of war ye'all am. So
that's what we do.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Yeah, we just weird, we weird and proudly were And
that's how we're gonna represent techy anything that we do.
We're gonna hold it on our back and this is
who we are, you know what I mean, as a state,
and we're gonna wear it and probably gonna put everybody
on the back and probably do it. That's what we do.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Have other family members there to observe.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, so we had a lot. We had aunties, uncles, uh, siblings.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Can you pick out specific voices at times, like in
the corner and you can hear that's Auntie and such.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, especially my dad and my mom and my little brother,
my little six year old brother. I can hear him,
no matter how loud the crowd is.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
That's fantastic. What's the plan. Where are we going now?

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Right now?

Speaker 4 (08:40):
We're looking at We got two options. We we either
looking next monthy in Omaha, Nebraska or Philadelphia.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Wait next Monday, next month, next month, yeah, next month
maybe nervous there for man.

Speaker 4 (08:53):
So we got a couple his eyes still about it
by monday too, so he'll be back at for it.
So we're just slow it, you know. Every since then
he been running three four miles a day, just staying
keeping his card.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Up, the cardio and skip rope. You jump rope, you
do that too, and then nothing alike on a speed
bag or anything, just to punch the bag a little bit.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
But when you know, we're just giving this his first out,
and he took a you know, he took like a
His test was something that you just don't see out
of the nor him for a debut fighter. So give
him by the week off and then next week we'll
kick back up. He had start back strength and conditioning training,
and then we'll just sail into our normal routine and
price I'll be back in action again within thirty days.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I see the joy in your face, and I love
that Price because I know you love what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, I love it. It's fun.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah. And then obviously this this whole dream, you build something,
but it's a step by step process. So each time
you know you're gonna go in there and it's a
it's a new thing because every every guy's different. Yeah,
but but I like that you you studied that video
on your dad's phone and looked at that for a
few seconds and set.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, we was ready.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
It had to be quick, though, like whatever this is,
and I came up with I knew it had to
be right then and there.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Because that changes your thinking for that next twenty four hours.

Speaker 4 (10:09):
Yeah, well twelve hours was only twelve It was probably
six hours.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
It was.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
It was there. So the thing about it was me personally.
I knew we had this fight when I watched the video,
but like I was saying, Price nine across over into
the prize fighting there, so he had grown man. He
making his check and got to make his decisions as well.
But when the guy who he was fighting wanted his
money to be doubled, almost tripled to fight Price, that's

(10:37):
when I knew we got something. That's when I knew
that is good news that he didn't have to show.
I didn't have to see anything when he said that. Psychologically,
let me know, you know, he was already depressed somewhere
other than what we was at for sure.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Price Sparrow, congratulations on your first victory. Can people follow
you guys online? Those are a boxer.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
We got my institute, Price Sparrow. We got another Instagram
Sparrow Boxing Club. We got another.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
We got a Facebook Sparrow Boxing Club.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Okay, sir, everybody knows how to spell Sparrow's Price is
spelled p r y ce, just so you'll know that,
pr Ye. It is great to see you. I'm so
happy that you got through this here and you look
fantastic and again you're radiating joy and confidence. So here
let's go.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
So thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Great to see great to see you too, Price Sparrows
Dad Calvin, and you can follow him on Instagram or
he said Facebook. Sparrow Boxing is available there as well.
All right, back in a minute on news radio, Wait
forty w h s
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.