By Dan Ambrose: Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will be putting it on the line tonight against Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) in a warm-up fight to get ready for a big money fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in November.
Ward, 31, is seen as a top pound-for-pound talent by many boxing fans, but the things that he accomplished during his career are in the distant past. Ward is living now on things that he accomplished five years ago in 2011 rather than on things that he’s done lately in the sport.
Ward and the Cuban Barrera will be fighting on HBO Boxing from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. A large crowd is expected to show up to watch Ward take on the 34-year-old Barrera. The fans expect Ward to be the fighter that he was in the past. The fans could be in for a big disappointment if Ward is no longer the fighter he once was. He’s moving up in weight to the light heavyweight division, and he’s facing a stronger and naturally bigger fighter than himself in Barrera. Ward is also taking on a fighter that has been much more active than he has. Barrera has thrown away five years of his career by not fighting the way Ward has.
Start time for Ward-Barrera: 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.
Where to watch: HBO Boxing
When: March 26
Location of fight: Oracle Arena, Oakland, California
Ward and his promoters at Roc Nation Sports have done their homework on Barrera, and feel confident enough to have taken the fight. You can tell from the fighters that didn’t get the fight against Ward that they feel that Barrera is vulnerable enough to beat him.
Barrera doesn’t have much hand speed to speak of, but he can throw with a lot of power with every shot. He’s not someone that will head hunt all the time. If he sees the body there, he’s going to go for it. Ward will need to be able to take some of Barrera’s big punches in order to get through this fight tonight with the victory. Barrera looked formidable in his win over Karo Murat last December in stopping him in the 5th. Surprisingly, Murat was able to back Barrera up throughout the fight. That’s something you wouldn’t expect because Barrera was the much harder puncher with more size.
Nathan Cleverly stopped Murat years before and had him backing up the entire fight. Barrera doesn’t seem to react well to pressure. Instead of standing his ground and fighting, he gives ground and frequently finds himself against the ropes, which is where he doesn’t need to be. If Ward is able to back Barrera up tonight, then it could be a very one-sided fight. Barrera needs to be the one that is applying pressure if he wants to win, because if Ward is able to have Barrera backing up, then he’s going to be able to pick him off all night long.
At one time, Ward one of the greatest fighters in the sport. Up until 2011, Ward was making things happen in winning the Super Six tournament, beating the likes of Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham, and ruling the 168lb division with an iron fist. But after winning the Super Six tournament, Ward started to fight infrequently, and had both promotional and injury problems that kept him from fighting on a regular basis for the next four years.
When Ward did finally come back in 2015, he still only fought once. He pulled out of a fight for November due to an injury. The injury problems for Ward aren’t anything new, as he’s had injury problems in the past as well that have caused him problems. When Ward beat Paul Smith by a 9th round knockout last June, it was thought by many boxing fans that he would start fighting frequently like he had been while in the Super Six tournament from 2009 to 2011. However, an injury that popped up while training for a fight in November caused Ward to pull out of the fight.
Barrera plans on taking the fight to Ward tonight in order to force him into a war. Ward hasn’t fought in a real war since his win over Carl Froch five years ago in 2011. Ward was able to get the better of Froch by going at him on the inside to take away the British fighter’s superior outside game. Without the ability to smother Froch’s game by going to the inside, Ward might have lost the fight because he was fighting with a fractured left hand.
Froch struggled initially that fight, but he came on strong in the second half of the action to get the better of the action. Ward chose to stay close to Froch to keep him from being able to extend on his shots, and it worked. Barrera isn’t going to be letting Ward control him on the inside. Barrera is going to use his superior upper body strength to get his shots off when/if Ward tries to take the fight to the inside. Ward could be forced to take the action back to the outside rather than on the inside.
Ward could have some problems tonight if he runs into one of Barrera’s hard shots. This Cuban kid has very heavy hands, and he’s got bruising shots. Ward might be able to get out of the way of some of Barrera’s punches, but not all of them unless he plans on moving all night long. Ward cannot afford to fight like that because he’s fighting at home in front of his own Bay Area fans in California.
Ward is also auditioning for the Kovalev fight on HBO, so it’s even more important that Ward stands his ground and doesn’t elect to run from Barrera.
Barrera is like a stronger, slower version of Edwin Rodriguez, a fighter that Ward beat three years ago by a 12 round unanimous decision. However, that was a younger and more active Ward that defeated Rodriguez. Now he’s definitely older, slower, and facing a stronger fighter in Barrera in a new weight class. Anything is possible in this fight.
Comments are closed.