Barrera's Manager Feels Andre Ward Being Caught at Right Time

By Elisinio Castillo

The team behind Sullivan Barrera believe they are catching Andre Ward at the right time.

According to Luis Molina, the manager of Barrera, a deal is practically wrapped up to face Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) on March 26 in Oakland, as the main event of an HBO card.

Since July of 2015, Barrera (17-0, 12 KO) had been tempted with an offer from Ward team, but the talks did not come to fruition and the boxer ended up facing Karo Murat in an IBF final light heavyweight eliminator.

"These last few weeks have been a lot of negotiations,'' said Molina to George Ebro. "I just asked for two things: being on HBO and fair financial parameters for our boxer. They complied with that and we are happy to face a great opponent like Ward.''

Ward has fought just three times in the last three years, mainly because of a business dispute with his former promoter, the late Dan Goossen, and then he was shelved because of various injuries.

"We will not subtract an inch of merit from Ward, because we know how complete he is inside the ring, '' said Molina." But he gaining weight, he's fought very little, his current level is unknown and Sullivan is in the prime of his career. I honestly believe that Sullivan has a good chance to beat him.''

Ward signed a promotional deal with Roc Nation Sports last year and had hoped to relaunch his career last November on the undercard to the Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez fight. However, a knee injury forced him out and he's been inactive since June 2015 when he got a stoppage win over Paul Smith.

The objective is to beat Ward in order for Barrera to maintain his position as mandatory challenger to Sergey Kovalev, who on January 30th will have his rematch with Jean Pascal. Ward is contracted to fight Kovalev in the fall, but also against Barrera will prevent that fight from happening.

"Since we won the right to face Kovalev when Sullivan beat Murat, we have to defend that right against Ward,'' said Molina." After all, beating Ward will bring us a good battle trophy. And then [after we beat Ward] we'll go in with everything against Kovalev.'