By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) took to twitter earlier on Saturday to deny news that he’ll be fighting unbeaten #7 IBF light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) on March 26 at the Oracle Arena in his hometown of Oakland, California. For some reason, Ward doesn’t seem too happy about the leaked information about the fight.
Why he would care is the big question. Barrera took a shot at Ward on Twitter after Ward’s Tweet. Barrera wants Ward to stop making excuses and to have his promoters send the contract already.
Ward, 31, says the information about the Barrera fight is premature, and furthermore, he doesn’t know who he’ll be facing next. There is no contract between him and Barrera, Ward says.
Why Ward took the trouble to make an announcement like this is the big question? It’s clear that Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports is currently negotiating with Barrera’s promoters at Main Events. It might have been better off for Ward to say quiet and just let the negotiations take place rather than him coming out and denying that a fight will happen between him and the 33-year-old Barrera.
Ward’s tweet today about the Barrera fight might be interpreted to some boxing fans that he’s getting cold feet at the idea of fighting the Cuban KO artist. It doesn’t look good that Ward would be trying to distance himself from the fight instead of embracing it and telling the public that the negotiations are indeed underway and that there is no news to give about the fight right now.
There certainly is reasons why Ward might not seem excited about a fight against Barrera. It’s a very dangerous fight for Ward, and he could very well get knocked out and wind up losing his chance for a big payday against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev later in 2016.
Ward last fought seven months ago in beating super middleweight Paul Smith in a fight at a catch-weight of 172lbs in June of 2015. It was thought that Ward would stay active after that fight and fight one more time before the end of the year, but he suffered a knee injury while training and wasn’t able to fight. Presumably the injury has healed enough for Ward to fight again, but we won’t find that out until he’s signed for a fight with a fight date. If Ward can make the fight date without pulling out of the fight due to injury problems, then we’ll know that he’s okay.
If Ward chooses another direction to go in for his next fight by facing an arguably lesser fighter, it’ll look to some fans like he swerved around Barrera. One of the names that had previously been mentioned as a possibility for Ward’s next fight is super middleweight Marco Antonio Periban, a fighter who isn’t even ranked in the top 15 at 168. That would have been a really poor selection for Ward and Roc Nation Sports, and it’s hard to imagine HBO even approving such a bad choice.
Premature information being leaked to the media. I don't know who my next opponent for my next fight is. I have no contract.
— Andre S.O.G. Ward (@andreward) January 9, 2016
@andreward @danrafaelespn Stop find excuse. Tell promoter to send contract. Is your promoter Jay Z or JC Penny?
— Sullivan Barrera (@sullivanbarrera) January 9, 2016
HBO recently signed a 3-fight deal with Ward, and if he’s able to fight guys that are more tune-up level opponents like Periban, it would mean that HBO is getting little value for their contract. If Ward faces Barrera, followed by the Kovalev fight later this year, then those are two great choices for Ward’s first two fights of his contract with HBO. Ward hasn’t fought a live body since his win over Edwin Rodriguez in 2013. That’s three years ago.
You can understand why it would look bad if Ward were to bypass the Barrera fight to face someone weaker, because it would mean that the fans would be seeing Ward take on another Paul Smith type of an opponent. It would be a mismatch. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be too excited about seeing Ward fight some poor sap that has no chance of beating him. I wouldn’t mind watching a fight like that on free television on ESPN, but not on a premium channel like HBO that requires you to pay extra every month to have the channel.
It’s in Ward’s best interest to fight the best possible opponents he can for each fight, because it’s his career that will be hurt if he chooses to fight weak opponents instead of guys that will challenge him and bring in good ratings.
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