By Elisinio Castillo

Light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KO's) will fight before the end of year. Sources close to the boxer have confirmed that he will be appearing on the November 25th HBO televised undercard to Sergey Kovalev vs. Vyacheslav Shabranskyy.

The card takes place at the Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Barrera was initially being lined up to face Kovalev, but after both sides were unable to reach an deal on the monetary terms, the contest was then offered to Shabranskyy.

No opponent has been confirmed. Barrera's manager, Luis Molina, says they are working very hard to finalize someone.

"Everything is pointing to Sullivan fighting on that date and we're trying to get him a quality opponent," said Molina to George Ebro. "We want to close out the year by leaving a good impression and then see if by 2018 we can finally fight for a world title. He has earned that right.''

Always looking for a worldwide belt, Barrera could not hide his discomfort when the WBA ordered the fight between Dmitry Bivol (11-0, 9 KO) and Trent Broadhurst (21-1, 12 KO) for the vacant light heavyweight crown that was recently vacated by Andre Ward.

Barrera (21-1, 14 KO), who is ranked second by the WBA, had the clear path to face the number one ranked fighter, Bivol. He felt it was logical within a meritocracy system.

Broadhurst, who is from Australia, is ranked 11th under the WBA and in his career the boxer has done nothing to be considered a serious contender or put himself in position to earn a world title opportunity.

The Russian Bivol, meanwhile, has also not faced or beaten the level of competition that Barrera has. The Cuban boxers has wins over top contenders like Karo Murat, Shabransky, Jeff Lacy and Joe Smith Jr. Not to mention he went the full twelve round distance with Ward in what was Barrera's only career defeat.