Andre Ward: Sullivan Barrera won’t be able to push me around

By Boxing News - 03/24/2016 - Comments

1-WardBarreraPC_Hoganphotos9[3]By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC 168lb world champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will be stepping up in weight this Saturday night at 175 in a fight against unbeaten Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs), and Ward believes he’s going to be successful in this new weight class for him.

Ward, 31, has added weight for this fight to get both bigger and stronger. He believes that the Cuban Barrera will not be able to push him around in the ring on Saturday night. We’re going to find out quickly if that’s going to be the case, because Ward didn’t look strong at the weight in his last fight against Paul Smith in June of last year.

Ward’s arms looked scrawny, and he didn’t appear to be throwing with light heavyweight power. Ward didn’t even look powerful for a super middleweight. With a knockout percentage of only 54 percent in his career at super middleweight, I think it’s not realistic for the 31-year-old Ward to think he’s going to suddenly be a big puncher now that he’s moving up to light heavyweight. If anything, Ward will be even weaker in facing bigger punchers without the strength to hurt his opponents in this weight class.

“This guy’s going to have the muscles and don’t get me wrong, I have a few muscles, too, but he’s going to look much bigger than me, but I’m going to have more than enough strength,” Ward said to fightnew.com. “It’s going to be evident. He’s not going to be able to push me around. I think he thinks he is and I’m not saying it’s not something I’m going to have to deal with because it is a bigger weight class.”

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Ward is probably going to discover quickly that Barrera is a much different type of fighter than the guys that he’s fought in the past. Barrera is bigger, and he’s going to be hitting a lot harder too. For Ward to win the fight, he’s going to need to be able to handle getting hit many times by harder shots than he’s been hit in the past.

Barrera has the kind of power that enables him to hit with major power even when not loading up on his shots. In the past, Ward beat fighters that had to load up on their punches to find major power. On Saturday night, Ward will be facing a guy that is naturally powerful in Barrera, because he’s a bigger fighter.

Ward will need a strong chin to take the major shots he’s going to be getting hit with. It wasn’t a good sign that Ward was shaken up by Paul Smith in the 7th round in their fight last June. Smith was in such bad condition that he only could fight hard for a fraction of each round. Even when Smith hurt Ward in the 7th, he didn’t have the conditioning to finish him off.

What could hurt Ward more than the punches that Barrera will be hitting him with is the fact that he’s been so inactive for so many years. Ward has been a part time fighter since 2012, and that’s a long time to be not fighting on a regular basis. If this were a sport like football or tennis, I don’t think it would be realistic for the athlete to ever regain the skills that they once had. I’ve never heard of athletes being able to give up four years of their careers in those two sports and come back at the same level they were at before they stopped competing on a regular basis. I believe it’s the same with boxing.

Ward will be good, to be sure, but I don’t think he’s going to be nearly as good as he was earlier in his career from 2008 to 2011. That time has passed. Ward, for whatever reason, stopped competing regularly after 2011, and now he’s trying to restart his career in 2016 in a bigger weight class against bigger, and stronger fighters than himself. Ward can certainly try and get more power by gaining weight, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. The fighters that are fighting at light heavyweight aren’t pumped up super middleweights. They’re guys that were naturally light heavyweights.

Ward will probably be able to beat Barrera, but it’s not going to be easy. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ward gets knocked out in the fight. If Ward beats Barrera, he’s still going to have a ton of problems against Sergey Kovalev when/if he fights him. Ward will also struggle against guys like Artur Beterbiev.



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