Andre Ward eager to start new phase of career with win over Sullivan Barrera
HAYWARD, Calif. - People often change their look when they want a fresh start. And Andre Ward is certainly someone looking to rejuvenate his athletic life.
Saturday's light heavyweight bout against Sullivan Barrera - Ward's first of 2016 - will be the main event on the HBO World Championship Boxing card from his hometown of Oakland at Oracle Arena. The contest will also serve as Ward's entry into the 175-pound weight class.
Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) sat on the ring apron at the gym he operates along with longtime trainer Virgil Hunter sporting a new hairstyle. The burst fade, as he calls it, is a drastic departure from the closely shaved head he's maintained throughout the majority of his pro career.
"That may be it," Ward, 32, said of his new cut signaling a new beginning. "It wasn't intentional, though. It just happened. … It's the next chapter, that's exactly what it is. It's a new weight class, it's a new season. I'm excited about it."
Hope springs eternal this time of year. Minor leaguers toil in Arizona and Florida with an opportunity to make the big-league club. High-school and college graduations are around the corner. Change is in the air.
Ward, too, is seeking transformation. As he prepares for what he calls the second phase of his accomplished career, Ward knows he must make a statement in his first foray at the full light heavyweight limit.
It's been more than four years since he completed an impressive Super Six tourney with a victory over Carl Froch in the finals. Ward effectively cleaned out the super middleweight division with the win, which followed triumphs over notable fighters like Arthur Abraham, Sakio Bika and Mikkel Kessler.
The last American male to win Olympic gold, Ward was given little chance to top Kessler. All these years later, he remains overlooked. Ward long ago stopped trying to prove the critics wrong. It's a fool's errand he knows he can never win. He does, however, want to prove to himself he has what it takes to be truly great.
That's why Ward elected to jump to 175 with an eye toward a November pay-per-view showdown (it would mark Ward's debut on the platform) with Russian puncher Sergey Kovalev, who will be ringside Saturday to scout his future foe.
"Outside of the Super Six I haven't had (an elite opponent) in a while," Ward said of Kovalev, BoxingJunkie's No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter. "I kind of threw all my top competitors all in the tournament. When that was over we had Chad Dawson and it was scarce after that.
"There seems to always be a boogeyman around the corner when I'm fighting. It's been like that since I've been an amateur. I don't see any weaknesses (in Kovalev) right now. I think he does everything right. I will have to really sit down and really focus on Kovalev for an extended period of time."
Kovalev, who holds three light heavyweight belts, is an incredibly challenging task for any fighter, but so far, inactivity has been Ward's toughest opponent.
Successful, handsome and in the athletic prime of his fledgling career, Ward appeared fast-tracked for cross-over appeal in a sport that badly lacks it following a knockout of Dawson in September 2012. Instead, Ward has competed just twice since then.
Injuries and a prolonged court battle with late promoter Dan Goossen robbed Ward of any momentum inside and outside the ring.
Instead of routinely headlining HBO pay-per-view shows, Ward was reduced to a whisper. "When will he fight again? Will he ever fight again?" Ward even admitted last year that he wrote a retirement speech and was ready to deliver it to the masses.
He wisely held off. BoxingJunkie's No. 6 pound-for-pound fighter eventually signed with Roc Nation Sports and returned after a 1½-year layoff with a nine-round beatdown of lightly-regarded British fighter Paul Smith.
But then came another injury and another layoff. The Smith bout was meant to shake off rust as a precursor to something bigger in 2016. Ward was set to fight for a second time last year in November with an assignment against another no-hoper, Alexander Brand. The bout, which would appear on the Cotto-Canelo undercard, was derailed after Ward experienced inflammation in his right knee.
Ward, who will make $1.85 million for this fight, hopes it's all behind him, and if all goes well Saturday (no injuries or cuts and a clear-cut victory), he plans to have one more bout before the summit meeting with Kovalev.
"I can't afford any off nights," admitted Ward, who famously hasn't lost a bout since age 13. "… I just want to finish strong. I don't know how many more years God is going to bless me to be in this sport, but I know I'm on the back end of my career; I know that. It could be three years; five years; two. I don't know.
Ward, left, and Barrera, right, face off at Wednesday's news conference. (Tom Hogan/Roc Nation Sports)
"… The perfect situation for me is to be the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world, defend those belts as many times as possible and enter heavyweight and be the heavyweight champion of the world. The right situation, the right heavyweight, it could happen. It could definitely happen. And then I can ride off into the sunset."
He admitted "it sounds crazy" but says he wouldn't target a big heavyweight in the mold of Wladimir Klitschko. Rather, he would find a smaller big man, and come in around 205 or 210. "If you know what you're doing in there, that's enough," he said.
But that's far down the road. He has a young, hungry lion ready to upset the apple cart Saturday in Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs), and Ward is ready to "make a statement" with a knockout.
"I'm going in the ring with no belts, empty-handed," said Ward. "This is 2009 all over again, me and Mikkel Kessler. It's a new weight class. I could bring my old belts in there and try to show everybody what I did in the past, but it means nothing right now. That book's closed.
"I have to show up all over again. I have to remind the people all over again. Everybody talking about layoffs and ring rust and being past my prime. I have to go out there and show it, but I'm not doing it to prove anybody wrong. I'm doing it to show the people that have always believed in me they were right."
(Photo of Ward by Tom Hogan/Roc Nation Sports)