Barrera had some success going to the body, the shots were mostly blocked and the ones that landed didn't seem to have a lot of sting on them... He was just too slow and predicable for Ward despite being the aggressor for most of the fight. It was pretty obvious after the first couple of rounds.
Kovalev wouldn't throw nearly as much. Also if Kovalev only lands 15% of his shots, he won't come cose to winning.
Ward definitively won the fight, but he was the one in survival mode most of the fight. At the end of the fight Barrera was like after a sparring session, and Ward was cut ... Ward was neither able to excell in this fight, althouth we was capable in the past to whopp other formidable fighters' asses like Froch, ... I was impressed with Barrera perfomance ... as I feared a throughful Domination ... there were many close rounds, and some of them could have been given to Barrera, quite an achievement against a fighter like Ward. It was so that Ward himself felt that his perfomance was a B- like ....
Guess what if Kovalev can't land, it'll be the worst thing possible for Ward, the only way to beat guys like Ward is to put your mind on cruise control and go full re**** kind of like Bika, who did better than anyone else, and if Ward frustrates Kovalev, he'll go full re**** like he did on BHop in the 12th.:nod
If Ward just had more power the guy would clean house everywhere! Ward showed good defense tonight by blocking and rolling punches. Barrera also showed some good D by block Ward's left hands. I'm just curious why Ward isn't throwing right hands?:huh If its a work I progress problem then that should have been fixed by now!