Tonight Andre Ward will make his full light-heavyweight debut at the 175lbs limit as a professional boxer.
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For the purists of the sport, many will be eagerly anticipating the return of Oakland’s Andre Ward, with him being widely recognised as one of the most skillful boxers in world boxing today.
But he’s not fighting a pushover tonight. Far from it.
Moving up to the full light heavyweight limit for the first time in his career, he’ll take on a slick undefeated Cuban by the name of Sullivan Barrera.
Ward will be boxing in his hometown and coming off the back of a dominant performance over England’s Paul Smith last summer, but Barrera (17-0-12KO) should prove to be a stiffer test, with the Cuban riding his own positive momentum within the sport, notably stopping Karo Murat in his last outing back in December.
The bookmakers seem to have Ward a strong favourite across the board:
It would be hard to see anything other than a win for the RocNation signed Ward, but if you were looking for a bit of extra value for a cheeky punt on the fight, the win by KO/TKO or on points markets would be (slightly) more fruitful:
Both men came inside the weight limit at the first attempt of trying at yesterday’s weigh-ins – both looking in supreme condition.
In terms of predictions on the fight, although I believe Barrera to be an excellently skilled fighter and certainly a very live dog in this one, it looks like Ward has taken things as deadly serious as ever in his preparation, being the consistent professional he is, and just feel a Ward points win seems the most likely outcome tonight at the Oracle Arena.
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