By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) and unbeaten Sullivan Barrera (16-0, 12 KOs) are reportedly close to a deal for March 26 on HBO Boxing, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. The Ward-Barrera fight will be staged at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Ward, 31, already has a deal with IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev to fight him on HBO later this year in 2016.
Barrera, #6 WBA, #7 IBF, #15 WBO, recently beat Karo Murat in an IBF eliminator last December with the thought of fighting Kovalev. Barrera, 33, could still wind up facing Kovalev if he can defeat the unbeaten Ward to get to that next level.
It was a potentially smart move by Barrera’s promoter at Main Events to match him against Ward, because that’s a more winnable fight for Barrera than fighting the taller, stronger Kovalev.
Ward has yet to fight a true light heavyweight at this time, and it might be a bit of a shock for him when he gets inside the ring with Barrera and discovers how much harder he hits compared to the fighters that Ward has been facing during his career at super middleweight. The closet thing that Ward has come thus far to fighting a light heavyweight was his bout last year in June against an out of shape Paul Smith, who had put on a lot of weight, but wasn’t necessarily in the greatest shape.
“He [Ward] is close to a deal to fight Sullivan Barrera on March 26 on HBO and already has a done deal for [Sergey] Kovalev in the fall if they both win their interim bouts,” Rafael said at ESPN.com.
This is a dangerous fight for Ward, because Barrera is a better puncher than many of the guys that he’s fought before. Ward did beat a hard puncher in Carl Froch in the past in winning a narrow 12 round unanimous decision, but that was five years ago, when Ward was a little younger at 26, and more active as a fighter.
Ward is older now, injury prone, and he’s no longer an active fighter. Ward stopped fighting a lot after the Froch fight. You can say that Ward begin resting on his laurels after that fight instead of staying busy and fighting three times a year, which is what he should have done.
Barrera is a hungry fighter, as he hasn’t made the kind of money and tasted the same kind of success that Ward has during his career. An accomplished amateur in the past from Cuba, Barrera is going to be looking to pull and upset against Ward on March 26 so that he can be the one that moves ahead to fight Kovalev with an unbeaten record.
Ward and Kovalev will still probably fight even if Ward loses to Barrera, but it will take a lot of interest out of the match-up if it takes place under those type of circumstances.
As a pro, Barrera has faced no one even remotely as talented as Ward during his seven-year pro career, and that could be a big problem for him. Barrera’s best opponent thus far have been Karo Murat, Jeff Lacy and Hakim Zoulikha. That’s weak opposition. It’s pretty clear that Barrera hasn’t been matched tough by his promoters, and that might explain why he’s still unbeaten at this point. If he were put in with guys like Artur Beterbiev, Andrzej Fonfara, Edwin Rodriguez and Eleider Alvarez, he might not still be unbeaten at this point. Never the less, despite the poor match-making that’ been done for Barrera, he is a very good puncher and he has an excellent amateur pedigree going for him. Obviously, he’s not at the same level as Ward as far as his amateur background goes. Ward captured a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics for the U.S, and he’s been unbeatable as a pro.
Hopefully the Barrera vs. Ward fight takes place in March like they’re planning for it to. With Ward’s recent history of injuries, it’ll be surprising if he makes it to the ring in one piece on March 26 without the fight needing to be postponed at least once or maybe even cancelled altogether. Ward is a good fighter when healthy, but it won’t surprise me if this fight gets postponed.
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