Andre Ward Defeats Sullivan Barrera & Joseph Diaz Jr Gets the Victory over Jayson Velez, Post Press Conference & Video Highlights
By: Victor O. Garcia Real Combat Media Head Boxing Rankings Panelist
Oakland, Ca (March 26, 2016)- The Oracle Arena hosted a different event from the usual. An event that does not involve a ball bouncing up and down a court. Tonight, the home of the dominating professional basketball team the whole world has their eyes on, The Golden State Warriors, hosted a boxing event with another local hero. Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs), arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter at the moment, faced a tough undefeated contender from Cuba Sullivan Barrera (17-1, 12 KOs), in a 12-round title eliminator in front of a little over 8,500 fans, Ward unanimously defeated Sullivan Barrera in dominant fashion.
Andre Ward has been limited in the last four years, due to injuries and legal issues. Despite of all that, Ward hasn’t shown any signs of ring rust and has dominated in every performance. Although in his last fight against Paul Smith, Ward got a victory via TKO, a dramatic ending was not necessary to earn a victory over Barrera. Andre out boxed Barrera throughout the whole fight as predicted by the boxing experts. Barrera definitely got his shares of the fight. He landed good combinations and pressured Ward throughout the night. Sullivan landed over 110 punches on Ward. Many of them were clean head shots, but it still wasn’t enough to make him look superior over Ward. Andre’s precision was on point. The left hook was a huge key to his victory, especially when Ward landed it on the right temple of Barrera in the third round, and was awarded a knockdown. Barrera did look like he was caught off balanced and was quick to get back up to receive the eight count. The knockdown did not seem to have slowed the Cuban fighter down and quickly responded with a nice well put combination of his own.
As the fight continued, Barrera kept the pressure on Ward and tested the jaw of the Oakland native fighter, but Andre Ward never seemed to be hurt by the power of Barrera and continued putting in work on Sullivan, with beautiful three punch combos and knocking Barrera off his rhythm with good feints.
Ward continued working that masterful-precise jab that would have Barrera think twice about throwing a punch, and when Barrera found a clear opportunity to connect on Ward and succeeded, Andre quickly responded with well-placed counterpunches and the crowd would gasp as they watched how their hometown hero would establish his great boxing skills.
A minor setback came in for Ward when he was deducted a point by the referee, for a low blow in the ninth round. In the end, the point deduction was unimportant and when the fight heard the final bell, the fight ended and Ward was awarded the victory via unanimous-decision. The judges scored the bout 117-109, 119-109, and 117-108.
After earning a victory, Ward talked about a tune-up fight prior meeting up with Kovalev. Kovalev is the lineal light heavyweight champ, and a mega fight with Ward would definitely be a big treat for the entire boxing world.
Joseph Diaz Jr vs Jayson Velez
The former US Olympic fighter Joseph Diaz Jr (20-0, 11 KOs), met in the center of the ring with veteran Puerto Rican contender Jayson Velez (23-2-1, 16 KOs), as the co-main event of the night. Joseph began the fight with powerful well-connected shots on Velez, trying to make a statement of what he has to offer to the fans on his HBO debut. The veteran fighter took some punishment in the first round, but quickly showed his experience and proved he was no pushover and responded with some good action. The stronger fighter of the two was Joseph. His great work to the body and well placed left hook were huge factors in the fight. Velez knew he had to do his best to compete with this top prospect.
Diaz implemented his combinations to the body and head very well on Velez. He dominated the early rounds, but began to show he was gassing out in the middle rounds and Velez took advantage and made the fight a fan-friendly action battle. Velez connected clean shots on Diaz and shown no signs of stopping. Diaz quickly stepped it up and ended the brief highlights of Velez and continued what he had started. Diaz kept exchanging with Velez and at moments it seemed to be the end of Jayson, but the heart of the Puerto Rican fighter, did not let him give up and kept punching away.
Despite being the more experienced fighter, Velez could not be superior over the more skilled and stronger Diaz. In the tenth and final round, Diaz was looking for the kill, but ran out of time and was awarded a unanimous-decision over Jayson Velez and proved he is no longer a prospect and could be a top contender in the featherweight division. Diaz also showed HBO he is a fan friendly fighter and Golden Boy Promotions could have a future superstar under their belt.
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