By Keith Idec

Sullivan Barrera has a vested interest in the Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev rematch.

The Cuban contender wants a light heavyweight world title shot. A Kovalev victory obviously would provide a more direct path toward his goal, thus he’ll be rooting for Kovalev to avenge his close loss to Ward when they meet again for Ward’s IBF/WBA/WBO 175-pound championships June 17 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

“It makes a hundred-percent sense for me to want Kovalev to win because we have the same promoter and that fight obviously is a lot easier to make,” Barrera told BoxingScene.com through a translator. “But at the end of the day, it all depends on what happens in their fight.”

Main Events promotes Kovalev and Barrera, who is ranked No. 4 by the WBA, No. 8 by the WBC and No. 13 by the WBO. A Kovalev win also would be better for Barrera because he suffered a one-sided defeat to Ward a year ago in Oakland, California, and there’s neither need nor demand for a rematch.

Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), of Hayward, California, had a much more difficult time with Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs), who floored Ward during the second round, but lost a unanimous decision November 19 at T-Mobile Arena (114-113 on all three scorecards).

“I believe, in my honest, humble opinion, that Kovalev won the first fight,” Barrera said. “As for the second fight, I know Ward is a very intelligent fighter and I know what Kovalev can bring to the table and what he has to adapt to. I think it’s a 50-50 fight. It could go either way.”

Barrera currently is much more focused on his own fight Saturday night.

The 35-year-old Barrera (18-1, 13 KOs) will oppose Paul Parker (8-1, 4 KOs), of Toledo, Ohio, in a 10-round main event HBO Latino will televise live from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Parker is unknown, but dropped then-unbeaten Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (17-1, 14 KOs) in the first round of their June 2015 fight in Philadelphia. Ukraine’s Shabranskyy came back to stop Parker in the third round.

Barrera knocked out Shabranskyy in the seventh round of his last fight, an action-packed battle HBO Latino televised December 16 from Indio, California. Parker, 32, beat Buffalo’s Lionel Thompson (18-4, 11 KOs) by split decision in his last bout, an eight-rounder 14 months ago in Las Vegas.

“Parker, even though he has limited fights, he’s a guy that definitely has talent,” Barrera said. “He’s got some power and like every time I step into the ring, I’ve gotta respect the fighter. I want to go out and make sure I put on a good show for the people in attendance and the [television] audience.”

Barrera-Parker will headline HBO Latino’s two-fight telecast, which is set to start at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

In the opening bout, St. Louis’ Vaughn Alexander (7-0, 5 KOs) is scheduled to meet Mexico’s Andres Calixto Rey (7-5, 5 KOs) in an eight-round middleweight match. The 31-year-old Alexander, an older brother of former two-division champion Devon Alexander, is 2-0 since resuming his career after serving 10½ years in prison.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.