By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is making a big step up in moving up to the full weight of the light heavyweight division against one of the biggest punchers in the weight class in Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) on March 26.
Ward, 31, won’t have the benefit of a catch-weight for this contest like he did in his last fight against super middleweight Paul Smith last June. Ward says Smith rehydrated to 192 or 193 for that fight, and he still was able to beat him. Smith was also fat at the weight, and nothing like a true light heavyweight, who typically rehydrates to a solid 190+ pounds.
Ward-Barrera fight will be televised on HBO Boxing and will be taking place in Ward’s home city at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. The crowd will be a pro-Ward crowd, but Barrera is accustomed to fighting in front of hostile crowds, as he had a long amateur career in Cuba, and it involved him doing a lot of traveling outside of his country.
“I’m okay fighting bigger guys. I’m OK with that challenge,” said Ward to Fighthype. “On March 26th, it’s time to roll. I think on the other side, my opponent thinks it’s going to be some type of bully situation, and will run me out of the ring. That’s what a lot of guys think until they get in there. I think they’re going to find out when they get in there. I’m sure he’s going to be aggressive and try to prove something. I’m ready for the challenge. Let’s see if they’re ready for what I throw at them,” said Ward.
Barrera isn’t planning on chasing Ward all over the ring, as Ward says. He believes Ward will be there right in front of him all night long. Ward has never ran from anyone during his career, so it makes little sense for him to assume that Barrera will be looking to chase him around the ring.
What Barrera will be doing it looking to land his best power shots, because that’s what he does. Barrera is a big puncher with knockout power in either hand. He obviously knows that he’ll miss a certain amount of punches in the fight, but that’s not going to keep him from coming back with more and more so that he can land whatever it takes for him to get the victory.
Ward doesn’t get hit a lot in his fight, which has kept him from being knocked out or put in distress. He was dropped by Darnell Boone earlier in his career, but he was able to get back to his feet and win the fight. In Ward’s fights against other big punchers, he was able to avoid getting hit cleanly by Arthur Abraham, Sakio Bika, Carl Froch and Edwin Rodriguez. Ward was more elusive then compared to now, and he may have a hard time keeping from getting hit by Barrera in this fight.
It’s hard to say who will win this fight because Ward has gotten older and isn’t the fighter he was back in 2011, when he won the Super Six tournament. If Barrera is able to land some of the shots that he connected with against his last opponent Karo Murat, then it’s going to be awfully difficult for Ward to stay on his feet. Ward was hurt with one of Paul Smith’s hard right hands in the 7th round of their fight. However, Smith was unable to land anything big with his follow up shots. They all missed badly.
Smith quickly got tired and stopped punching. This enabled Ward to come on and dominate the remainder of the round, as well as the remainder of the fight. Smith looked like he hadn’t trained at all for the fight, and it’s surprising that he fought in the type of condition that he was in.
What makes Barrera so dangerous in this fight with Ward is that he can punch with huge power with every swing. If Barrera misses with a shot, he just keeps throwing until he connects. He’s not going to get winded after throwing six or seven shots like Smith did, and he’s not going to get dominated on the inside the way Edwin Rodriguez did.
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