Comments Thread For: Andre Ward-Sullivan Barrera Agreement Reached For March 26

[Vasyl’s dad]

won gold at the amateur world championships, which is the biggest tournament of the year other than the olympics in an olympic year, which it was. beat dawson in the amateurs. came up in cuba. those guys know how to fight in the amateurs.

as a pro he's considered an up and comer. his best win is probably a guy named karo murat, who was past his best and never a world beater, but he was a contender at 175 for a while. barrera wasn't moved softly early on, from what i can see. fought a few undefeated guys on his way up. his promotors probably wanted to see what they had. cubans really aren't coddled, as they don't have the marketing power of mexicans, blacks, PRs, brits, etc.


barrera isn't a fully proven fighter yet, and i wouldn't consider him a top 10 contender at this stage, but he's earned his status as an "up and comer."

he's a top 15ish LHW in the world, can punch a bit, and he's undefeated. i think it's a great fight for ward. great matchmaking if you are his handlers. you need rounds and to tune up. there's some element of intrigue for the fans. you need to get used to fighting 175 lbers, too. this fight accomplishes all of that while being an acceptable risk. props to rocnation for doing it right. the only thing i thought was excessive was ward's purse for smith. but if it's in a contract, it's in a contract, and you can't get mad at ward for commanding that kind of money. the market sets the price. surely he thought he could go elsewhere, and he'd have been right.

So basically, he doesn't even have a best win. Ok thanks.

[RussB23]

yay.........

[Lou Cipher]

Didn't know fast food managers had good health insurance???

GGG usually has his entire fights signed by the end of January.

You do know that the guy Ward is fighting is ranked HIGHER than Ward at LHW by most organizations?

And GGG's is not???

That's the difference between the two! One will move up and go for other challenges while the other one sit and squats weight for the smaller guys to grow up.

Funny how you pea brains all of a sudden endorse the ridiculous sanctioning body ranking systems when it fits your agenda but as soon as it doesn't they are corrupt, blind, racist etc etc etc. Ward is ducking GGG and Kovalev. That's all there is to it.

[casheddie]

Sounds great but I'm not patting Ward on the back until he enters the ring on the 26th. Cause the pat might break his back and postpone the fight.

[Mr.Fantastic]

Anyone know if Barrera is a 4 round fighter and then gasses late or lowers his work rate after 4-5 rounds? Ward could have a difficult fight for 4 rounds and then he'll take over from there since he is a 12 round fighter.

You're claiming dude is very very dangerous but don't know if he could fight more than 5 rounds? What the hell?!?!?

Damn, very very dangerous fight here. This could be one of those fights where it's a lose-lose situation for Ward. If he wins, I think it'll be ugly, and critics won't like it. It would probably drop his stock. Barrera is a dangerous guy and hoping Ward takes him very serious. If he ends up fighting Barrera and Kovalev in 2016, that is by far the most dangerous 2016 for any fighter in boxing. If he wins clearly, they'll say, well he finally fought someone and it wasn't even a top 10 LHW. Regardless, Ward needs to take this guy as serious as Kessler and Froch. He's big, has power, he's taller with longer arms. Ward needs to win this and win this.

[Vasyl’s dad]

You're claiming dude is very very dangerous but don't know if he could fight more than 5 rounds? What the hell?!?!?

Comical. They have to sell this guy who has beaten nobody to make it look like ward is taking on a challenge. 18 months ago, he was put down by a guy with 7 fights. Pretty sad when you have to hype up a club fighter as someone to test a world champion.

[New England]

Afraid? Afraid of what? Look, I'll just be as honest as I can about Ward. A bunch of guys talk about how great he is, how unbeatable he is, how impeccable his skillset is. Would a guy like that ever need any type of advantage, whether that be location, ref, or weight?

I see a guy that DEMANDS home court advantage every single time out, irregardless of opponent. Now for a guy that is supposedly the best boxer out there, and a guy that you yourself admit, has never needed any help ever winning a fight, to feel the need to have a security blanket like that, is a glaring red flag for me.

Next, he gets a bigger guy to drain down to the point of being a zombie. Yeah, I know Dawson initially agreed to drop the weight but he then wanted to meet in the middle and WARD SAID NO. It is what it is, and let's toss all the specifics out the window and boil it down to the basics; Ward fought a larger man moving down in weight.

Then, Ward tries to lure a smaller man up after he [Ward] just missed the 168 limit for his last fight and when the smaller man wants to meet in the middle, WARD SAID NO. That's twice now that he's refused to compromise.

After that, we have Ward trying to get other drastically subpar 168 pound guys to meet him up at 175. Trying to take advantage of both weight and technical ability.

Now, if I'm the type of person who looks at a person's actions to gauge what type of character that person has, which I am, then I don't get a good vibe from Ward. Secondly, I like boxers that put in work, that go out there and give it their all. Guys that are willing to sacrifice to make a good fight occur and are even willing to disadvantage themselves to take on a tough challenge.

I don't like this "diva" mentality that boxers have today, it's some weak garbage. Ward, to me, is a diva and I think he comes off as arrogant.

So, I'm not afraid of Ward, I just don't like him. The fact that people tout him and act like others NEED to move up to fight him or cater to him definitely exacerbates my negative perception of him as well.

that diva signed up for the SS and won . that tournament ended or nearly ended the careers of several contenders.

atlantic city is 3000 miles from oakland. it's only around 3500-4000 from nottingham. probably 3 more hours on a plane from nottingham. is that why he beat carl froch? 3 hours on a plane ?


and onto chad dawson and the weight:
do you know what happens when you fight over 168 lbs?

[therealpugilist]

he's good enough, but that doesn't make you a household name on its own. it's hard to pin down, but there's an "it factor" or what shakespere used to call "the rub" for a star. the public chooses stars. they're pushed and invested in, yes, but the public has to choose it. they need a sschtick. golovkin has power. floyd trhew some of the prettiest punches you will ever see, and they were so flashy that a layman could tell exactly how skilled he was. outside of the ring he was articulate, like ward, but also had an ability to make people pay attention to what he did and who he was outside of the ring, and that's something ward doesn't have. manny was tiny, asian, and the last person people expected to hit or move like that. tyson was a perfect storm of everything. power. short fights. well spoken with a high voice and a lisp. bat sh#t nuts by the end.

ward's just good. you really need more to cross over to ppv. you need a push, and you need a rub. you also need an opponent. manny and floyd beat oscar up at the end of his career, and it helped catapult them to stardom.

didnt hurt we in creed. He is a clean cut guy, shouldnt be any problem getting endorsements.

I feel you though, its that it factor...he isnt compelling enough, personality wise and he isnt in a lot of drama either

[-Kev-]

You're claiming dude is very very dangerous but don't know if he could fight more than 5 rounds? What the hell?!?!?

I have seen him fight, he IS dangerous. But I don't know if he's a 12 round fighter. A fighter could gas late, AND be dangerous. My questions was directed at those who have followed his career more than I have. There's nothing wrong with my question.

[Loque-san]

Comical. They have to sell this guy who has beaten nobody to make it look like ward is taking on a challenge. 18 months ago, he was put down by a guy with 7 fights. Pretty sad when you have to hype up a club fighter as someone to test a world champion.

LOL BoxRec, it was a slip...