Andre Ward Feels He Will Be Even Better With Quick Return

By Ryan Burton

Andre Ward (29-0, 15KOs) returned to the ring after a 9 month layoff Saturday night and defeated Sullivan Barrera (17-1, 12KOs) by unanimous decision at the Oracle in Oakland, California.

Layoffs have plagued the last four years of the Super Six tournament winner's career. Now that Ward is injury free and past his previous promotional issues, he believes he will be more active.

When War fought in June of last year, he stopped Paul Smith in nine rounds. It was his first fight since a November 2013 decision win over Edwin Rodriguez.

Even though he dominated on Saturday, Ward feels he has a lot of room to improve. He believes a quick ring return will provide even better results for his next performance.

"I think that is accurate. I think it would be a lot smoother offensively and defensively. I think certain things I wanted to do today that maybe I didn't do - we would pull them off - like making a guy miss and counter that or maybe finish a guy when we get him hurt like we did today," Ward told BoxingScene.com.

Ward already has a major fight wrapped up for the fall, with WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs). Ward is contractually able to take another interim bout before they collide. Kovalev is also looking to have one more fight before meeting Ward. There are ongoing discussions to have Kovalev make a defense of his world titles on a June date in Russia.

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