Lightweight Avery Sparrow was arrested Friday morning in Los Angeles, and his scheduled bout Saturday night against Ryan Garcia in Carson, California, has been canceled.
Sparrow's promoter, Russell Peltz, said the fighter was wanted by police for allegedly "brandishing a handgun in a domestic dispute in April."
"You can't serve Avery because he doesn't live anywhere," Peltz said. "He lives with friends, he lives with family. He was out here [in Los Angeles] for three months. So there's nowhere to serve him."
According to Peltz, Sparrow had returned to the Philadelphia area in mid-August.
"He felt he could get better sparring there, and he trained in Cherry Hill (New Jersey) for the last month."
Peltz said he was alerted about Sparrow's pending legal situation Tuesday by Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Robert Diaz. Peltz then contacted his own attorney, George Bochetto, who attempted to cut a deal with authorities to allow Sparrow to fight Saturday.
Peltz said he believed an agreement had been struck with the U.S. Marshal Service, as long as Sparrow's fight purse was withheld until he showed up to court in Philadelphia on Monday.
But on Friday morning, before the scheduled weigh-in, Sparrow was apprehended at a Los Angeles-area Target store, according to Peltz.
"They were circling the area, there were a lot of cop cars out early, he said, when he was out running, and they had a helicopter," Peltz said. "They cornered his car, he and four or five of his buddies were on the ground, and they arrested him."
Sparrow was taken to L.A. County jail, where he remained Friday night, according to Peltz.
Garcia tweeted late Friday night that he would not be fighting on Saturday's card.
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told ESPN's Dan Rafael that Garcia was offered a fight with Romero Duno, who is already on the undercard Saturday, when he's already set to face Ivan Delgado in a scheduled eight-round bout.
Although Duno and his camp accepted the offer, Garcia's side has rejected it. But Gomez said that should they change their minds by Friday night or even Saturday morning, that fight can be put together easily, as both fighters have made weight.
Garcia told Rafael that he and his team did not reject fighting Duno. Garcia said when his team was asked about changing opponents the day before the fight, they asked Golden Boy about discussing new terms for the bout.
"We never said no. We said, 'Let's talk numbers,'" Garcia said.
Garcia's manager, Roger Ruiz, said he was "going to really push" for his fighter to be the co-main event for Canelo Alvarez's Nov. 2 bout against WBO light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev.
About the Sparrow cancellation, Ruiz said Garcia was "obviously disappointed, but what can you do? He was ready, he was on weight, exactly 135. He did his job -- he showed up. The other guy unfortunately had some issues in the past that caught up to him, and now he can't fight."