By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten #1 IBF Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) feels that he’s going to need to knockout former super middleweight world champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) this Saturday night on March 26 in order to ensure that he gets the victory.
Barrera will be fighting Ward in his hometown at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Barrera will be the visiting fighter, and he obviously feels that it might find be difficult to get a decision in that venue.
Where can boxing fans watch Ward vs. Barrera fight? It will be televised live on HBO Boxing on Saturday night.
Ward-Barrera start time for fight is at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
“My brain has thanked me for these two years and my body has thanked me for these two years. Fighting at 175, I get to eat. I’m a little bit happier,” said Ward via Fightnews.com.
Ward didn’t fight from 2013 to 2015 due to a combination of promotional problems and injury related issues. It’s probably not a good thing for fighters to lose two years of the prime of their careers no matter how Ward wants to spin it.
Ward can see it as a positive thing that he lost two of his best years, but I think it would have been better if he had been fighting in those two years and making money. But if Ward is happy with the money he’s already made, then perhaps he’s fine with having lost a couple of years of his pro career. Ward also wasn’t that active in 2012. He fought only once in that year against Chad Dawson. You can argue that Ward should have fought at least two times as the WBA/WBC super middleweight champion.
By fighting only once, he lost half a year. In 2013, Ward fought only once. That’s another half year of his career he lost. In 2015, Ward fought only once as well. That’s another half year that he lost. Overall, you can argue that Ward has lost close to four years of his pro career due to inactivity. That’s not good. Ward is now fighting a very good fighter in Sullivan Barrera, 34, on Saturday night, and it could prove to be too much for his body to handle. You can’t be inactive like Ward has been and assume you’re going to win.
“Andre Ward has his name and I’m fighting in his hometown so I have to have the knockout,” said Barrera to fightnews.com. “I would have to even if we were fighting in Las Vegas. More than anything, I am determined to overcome this challenge.”
It might be a good idea for Barrera to take the judges out of the fight on Saturday night, because the last thing he needs is to find himself losing a controversial decision. But it’s going to be very hard anyway for Barrera to beat Ward by a decision, because he’s not a boxer like Ward. Barrera is more of a puncher, and he’s facing one of the best boxers in the sport.
Ward is never out-boxed in his fights, and he rarely losses rounds. Ward lost some rounds against Carl Froch, and was fortunate to win that fight because he had an injured left hand that he went into the fight with.
Barrera’s trainer Abel Sanchez has already said that they plan on putting a lot of pressure on Ward to keep him from being able to breathe in this fight. They don’t want Ward to have any space so that he can move round, jab and pot shot. The best way for Barrera to accomplish that is for him to stay directly on top of the 31-year-old Ward to keep him from being able to pot shot and score points.
If Ward has to beat Barrera on the inside, it’s going to be a lot tougher fight than he’s been accustomed to in the past. Ward did defeat a light heavyweight in the past in stopping former WBC 175lb champion Chad Dawson by a 10th round knockout in 2012 in their fight at 168. However, Dawson was clearly weight drained for that fight after making the foolish mistake of agreeing to come down to 168 to fight Ward rather than asking for a catch-weight.
Dawson didn’t know how to fight on the inside, and he was totally dominated by Ward. Barrera won’t be weight-drained in this fight on Saturday, and he’s a good inside fighter. Just how good is the big question?
If Barrera is as good as someone like Artur Beterbiev, then Ward is going to be in for a world of hurt because he won’t have the advantage in upper body strength like he’d had in the past while grappling on the inside against super middleweights. Barrera is heavily muscled with his upper body, and likely more than capable of wrestling Ward for position to throw shots in close.
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