By Allan Fox: Andre Ward’s debut at light heavyweight went well last Saturday night with him beating the highly ranked #1 IBF Sullivan Barrera (17-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 117-108, 119-109 and 117-109 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
This was Ward’s first fight at the full weight of 175lbs in the light heavyweight division, and his first fight against a true light heavyweight. Ward’s previous fight was against an out of shape super middleweight Paul Smith at a catch-weight of 172lbs. The Barrera fight was Ward’s first fight of his three-fight contract with HBO Boxing.
Ward now says he wants to take another tune-up fight before he faces IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev later this year in November. It is unknown what HBO thinks about Ward eating up two-thirds of his three-fight contract with them fighting tune-up bouts.
You can argue that HBO is not getting their money’s worth unless Ward takes on the very best, which would mean at least a contender, like Artur Beterbiev, Elieider Alvarez or Andrzef Fonfara. If Ward is going to find another contender with slow hands like Barrera, HBO isn’t going to get much from their three-fight contract with Ward other than his fight against Kovalev, and we still don’t know if that fight will even happen.
HBO needs to insist that Ward faces Beterbiev next in his second fight of his contract so that they can get value for their money in signing Ward to a three-fight contract.
“I think another fight is in order,” Ward said about wanting another tune-up before facing Sergey Kovalev later this year.
I think HBO needs to put their foot down and insist that Ward take on a dangerous opponent for his next fight. If Ward has to leave his hometown of Oakland, California to face a quality guy like Beterbiev, then so be it. HBO would likely jump at the chance of televising a Ward vs. Beterbiev fight, because this would be a true 50-50 fight.
Beterbiev twice beat Kovalev in the amateur ranks, and he clearly had his number when the two were fighting in the amateurs in Russia. Beterbiev kind of reminds me of Ward in a way with his ability to fight on the inside, and throw short punches.
The shot that Ward knocked Barrera down in the 3rd round last Saturday night was a short left hook while the two of them were close together. Beterbiev fights even better on the inside than Ward, and has far superior punching power. It would be a tough fight for Ward if he was to take on Beterbiev, and I could see him losing that fight.
I’m not sure that Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports will agree to match Ward against Beterbiev. The selection of Barrera was clearly a calculated one in finding a guy with a high ranking, an unbeaten record, little experience, and very slow hand speed. Beterbiev is inexperienced, but he is very powerful and he would give Ward all he could handle.
”I think he was buzzed, but I saw him look at his corner and nod so I knew he wasn’t out on his feet, but I wanted to test him,” said Ward via Fightnews.com about how he was able to knock Barrera down in the 3rd round.
Barrera was not buzzed from the knockdown. Ward could see it himself because that is why he did not go after him. You could see Ward studying Barrera closely after he got back to his feet, but once he realized that Barrera was still fine and not going anywhere, Ward played it safe by continuing to jab and not putting himself in the line of fire from the hard hitting but very close Cuban.
“There was no one moment, with his strength or his power or how I felt when anything really felt differently, when I thought, ‘Oh, okay; this is different,” said Ward.
Ward wasn’t hit enough by Barrera to be truly bothered by his shots in the fight. Barrera was throwing single shots, and then backing up instead of surging forward and unloading everything he had.
It was a poor fighting plan, but it was exactly how Barrera fought in his previous fight against Karo Murat from last December. Instead of going after Murat, Barrera was frequently being backed up by the smaller, weaker fighter. Barrera eventually got the knockout, but he fought a poor fight.
“I can’t apologize for fighting at home. I had 29 fights, and I’ve fought at home eight times,” said Ward.
Ward is not going to likely get Kovalev to agree to fight him in Oakland. Kovalev said he wants to fight in a larger venue in Las Vegas, Nevada or New York.
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