Sanchez: Sullivan Barrera is Not Going To Let Andre Ward Breathe

By Edward Chaykovsky

Two-time world champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is about a week away from his upcoming fight with undefeated light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs).

The fight takes place Saturday, March 26th, at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. The event will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.  Opening the HBO telecast will be Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Jayson Velez in a 10-round fight for the NABF featherweight title.

Ward is coming back for the first time since last June's TKO win over Paul Smith. The fight with Barrera will be his official debut in the light heavyweight division.

Barrera, trained by Abel Sanchez, has been very active but he's never gone the twelve round distance.

Sanchez is not concerned with the fight going rounds.

"You know, all coaches that have that level fighters, we always train for 14, 15 rounds. We never train for 12. It’s just a matter of making sure that we convince him and we take care of him in the corner so that he can continue to perform at the level that he does at the beginning of the fight. You’re right, he has never been that distance but there’s always a first time. We’ll see how he reacts. It’s up to us to keep him calm," Sanchez said.

Other the other hand, Sanchez and Barrera are going to push Ward's stamina to the limit. Ward has only been in action once since a decision win over Edwin Rodriguez in November of 2013.

"Well the Andre Ward that we’ve watched in the past we haven’t seen lately. But it’s the best that I can do is prepare Sullivan to take what’s given to him, to take what’s in front of him. Sullivan has a style that is from the - I meant to say from part of the Cuban school and part of my school. The attacking style that he has now and the knockouts that he has now are some of the stuff that we practice in the gym. It’s just a matter of going at Andre and taking what he gives us but not to let Andre breathe," Sanchez said.