By Jeff Aranow: Rightly or wrongly, Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) has put himself into a tight spot with him having to beat a very good fighter in #1 IBF Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) on March 26 in Ward’s first true fight at light heavyweight in the pro ranks.
Ward needs to defeat Barrera in order to get a much bigger fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev on November 19. However, if Ward loses his fight against Barrera, then he could forget about a fight against Kovalev.
The Ward-Barrera fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing on 3/26 starting at 9:45 p.m. at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Kovalev and his promoters at Main Events can’t be too happy about Ward taking a risky tune-up fight against Barrera because that’s a fight that Ward could very well lose. He didn’t look so great in his last fight against Paul Williams last year at a catch-weight of 172lbs in June 2015. Ward didn’t look like a legitimate light heavyweight in that fight, and he was rocked by a right hand from Williams in the 7th.
Kovalev would likely prefer to take the fight with Ward as soon as possible, because there’s risk involved each time Ward fights. He’s not been an active fighter since 2011, and has rarely fought since then. At 31, Ward is prone to injuries and you have to hope that he doesn’t fall apart in training camp for the Barrera fight that could cause the fight to be delayed.
It’s unclear if Ward will look to take another tune-up fight if he gets past Barrera on March 26. The Barrera fight counts as the first fight of Ward’s new three-fight contract with HBO. If Ward can slip in another tune-up after the Barrera fight, then that will bring even more risk for Ward and his fight against Kovalev.
HBO isn’t just going to sit back and let Ward fight whoever he pleases. They’re going to insist on quality. This mewans that Ward will likely need to fight someone as least as good as Barrera if not better. The problem for Ward is he might not have the size and punching power to beat someone like Barrera and whoever else.
Barrera is trained by Abel Sanchez, the same guy that trains IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Sanchez will have a great game plan for Barrera to use against Ward and it could be enough to defeat him.
— Andre S.O.G. Ward (@andreward) February 17, 2016
“I don’t really have much to say other than this: On March 26, it will be very simple. I’ll be in a new weight class against a tough opponent, but I’m coming with the same approach,” said Ward.
Kovalev did his job to get ready for the Ward fight by defeating Jean Pascal by a 7th round knockout last January in a mismatch. The fight wasn’t competitive at all. Kovalev had too much firepower for Pascal to deal with.
If Ward can get to the Kovalev fight in one piece later this year, then he’s going to have to figure out how to match up with him, because he’s not going to be able to smother Kovalev’s shots by wrestling him on the inside like he did with other fighters in the Super Six tournament.
The first thing that you have to worry about with Ward is whether he can stay healthy enough to get to the Barrera fight next month on March 26, because Ward has had so many issues with injuries and squabbles with his promoters. Just last November, Ward had a knee problem that kept him from fighting on the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez card.
Where did the knee injury come from? Will it come back again to cause the Barrera fight to be delayed? You have to hope that Ward can can make into the ring with breaking down physically because he’s getting up there in age where injuries can be a problem. Kovalev is older than Ward by one year, but he’s been active and not sitting out of the ring the way that Ward has over the last couple of years.
Barrera has a real chance of causing an upset in this fight with Ward. I think it could be a more difficult fight for Ward than he originally thought it would be.
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