Now Ward holds an impressive win over Edwin Rodriguez who was a bigger guy with a good punch. Rodriguez was undefeated until he faced Ward and he had some good wins over decent opposition. One could argue Rodriguez in 2013 was pretty much what Barrera is right now. Ward outboxed him, frustrated him and outpointed him. The main difference now is that Ward took a long break from the sport and he's fighting at 175 now. So what's your opinion? Is it going to be a replay of the Rodriguez fight vs Barrera, or is it going to be any different, and if so, how?
There's two different Edwin Rodriguez's its almost like he's a schizophrenic sometimes he out boxes his opponents and sometimes he comes in guns blazing trying to KO his opponent, the Rodriguez that fought Rosinsky showed up against Ward not the Rodriguez who fought Grachev. And that Rodriguez isn't quite as good as Barrera is, and when he's being more tentative, his matches almost always go the distance, even when Barrera is being more tentative his fights still usually end in a KO, so I don't think it tells us much.
I think one of the major problems with Ward is that he's a pure boxer and not a real warrior in the ring. Whenever he's hit with a good, unexpected shot, he looks like a kid who's just been slapped by his mother and goes full into survival mode. I think it takes someone to really hurt him with a good shot and capitalize on it while avoiding the clinch. I can visualize a TKO where Ward is unable to respond to an all out attack. Can Barrera do it? He just might.
I think he can, he can definitely overpower Ward and GGG taught him well in regards to breaking clinches, I think Ward has ****ed up big time in taking this fight, his usual tricks won't work in this division and he's chosen a wll rounded fighter who's got the goods, he miscalculated big time in my opinion.
I think he should have easy work with Barrera. I've seen a lot of Barrera. He's a bit above average but nothing special. I'd say he's like a bottom ten-type fighter. Should be an easy night for Ward. As for the Rodriguez fight, I've never been impressed with Rodriguez. He hasn't really beaten anyone. Michael Seals had no one special on his resume. Craig Baker was a good win, but Savigne was also KO'd by a complete nobody; therefore, it wasn't anything out of the blue.
Fresh from the scene Barrera Advised By Manager To Go All Out With Andre Ward "Sullivan is very aware that he must give 150 percent in this fight. Look at what happened to Yuniesky González when he fought Jean Pascal. [Barrera] cannot leave anything in this fight to chance. He has to win by knockout or continuously throw punches," Molina told George Ebro. Barrera is trained by veteran coach Abel Sanchez, who works with middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin and several other top fighters. "When Sullivan was brought to me, I realized that he needed to polish a lot of things. I knew that he was worth dedicating my time," Sanchez said. "Sullivan devoted himself entirely to my program and now he is enjoying the fruits of this effort."
