ward4 By Allan Fox: 31-year-old Andre Ward will be fighting three months from now in his first fight of his 3-fight contract with HBO. Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will be fighting in his hometown of Oakland, California at the Oracle Arena.

The opponent is still unknown at this point. Ward recently gave up his WBA 168lb title before moving up to the light heavyweight division, where he’ll be soon targeting IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev if he gets past Jean Pascal in their rematch next month on January 30th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.

It’s believed that HBO will give Ward a pass in his first fight of his three-fight contract with them by letting him take a soft job instead of someone that has a chance of beating him, and is popular enough to create good ratings.

It would be in Ward’s best interest not to baby himself by facing horrible opposition, because he’s going to need to be ready for what he’s going to be facing when he gets inside the ring with Kovalev in 2016. Sparring alone isn’t going to improve Ward enough to get him ready for the huge bombs that Kovalev will be nailing him. It wasn’t a good sign that Ward appeared to be buzzed by a hard right hand by his last opponent Paul Smith. Ward is going to be getting hit a lot by Kovalev when the two of them go at it. That’s why it’s important that Ward face some guys that can get him ready for the big shots that he’s going to be getting nailed with from Kovalev. Ward barely beat Carl Froch in their fight in the Super Six tournament four years ago in 2011, and Kovalev is arguably a far better fighter than Froch.

Marco Antonio Periban and Sullivan Barrera are two potential opponents for Ward’s fight in March. The 33-year-old Barrera is easily the better choice of the two. According to Dan Rafael, Barrera’s promoters at Main Events and Ward’s management at Roc Nation Sports are far apart in the money for the fight. It’s too bad, because Barrera would be a good opponent for Ward to fight rather than him fighting someone like Periban, who was recently knocked out.

HBO needs to make sure they get value for their money for the Ward 3-fight deal, because it would be a pity if fans are stuck watching Ward fight Paul Smith, and Periban level opponents before he finally faces Kovalev in his third fight of his contract.

Ward’s last opponent was against Paul Smith last June in a mismatch. Ward hadn’t fought in almost two years before taking that fight, so you couldn’t blame him for taking a weak opponent like Smith. But at this point, Ward needs to turn up the heat in his career and start facing better opposition rather than continuing with the weak opponents.

Barrera looked good recently in wiping out Karo Murat by a 5th round knockout in an IBF light heavyweight eliminator earlier this month on 12/12. The win for Barrera means he doesn’t really need a fight against someone like Ward, which is why it’s likely going to cost more to get him to agree to the fight with him now. If Barrera wasn’t the IBF mandatory for Kovalev, Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports would have a better chance of getting him at a better price whatever that is.