Barrera Advised By Manager To Go All Out With Andre Ward

By Elisinio Castillo

Luis Molina, manager of light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera  (17-0, 12 KO),  has advised his fighter to go all out on March 26th when he steps in the ring with one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, former super middleweight king Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KO).

The HBO televised fight will take place in Ward's backyard of Oakland, California. 

There is a lot at stake in contest with Ward already having an agreement in place to face IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in the fall. Barrera is the IBF's mandatory challenger to Kovalev.

Barrera had a guaranteed title shot after knocking out Karo Murat last year. He could have waited things out to face Kovalev in June. He couldn't take a pass on potentially being the man to take out Ward, who fought only two times since 2013.

"Sullivan is very aware that he must give 150 percent in this fight. Look at what happened to Yuniesky González when he fought Jean Pascal. [Barrera] cannot leave anything in this fight to chance. He has to win by knockout or continuously throw punches," Molina told George Ebro.

Barrera is trained by veteran coach Abel Sanchez, who works with middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin and several other top fighters.

"When Sullivan was brought to me, I realized that he needed to polish a lot of things. I knew that he was worth dedicating my time," Sanchez said. "Sullivan devoted himself entirely to my program and now he is enjoying the fruits of this effort."