"Andre Ward looked a little bigger than I was used to seeing him look, but he still had that speed. The main thing for me was is he going to take any of his punching power up to the light heavyweight division. Even though he wasn't knocking a lot of people out at super middleweight and he was mainly outboxing them, he muscled a lot of guys. I think it's going to be a very tough fight for him if he fights Kovalev," stated Hall of Famer Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson, who shared his thoughts on Andre Ward's dominant unanimous decision victory over Sullivan Barrera. Check out what else he had to say about the performance, a future showdown with light heavyweight king Sergey Kovalev, and more.
MARK JOHNSON ON ANDRE WARD'S PERFORMANCE AGAINST SULLIVAN BARRERA:
"I think the performance was a little bit of both in the sense that, I think it was Andre Ward is a different level of fighter and I also think it was a little bit of Sullivan Barrera not being who we thought he was. A lot of times, we cover these guys and they did certain things in the light heavyweight division and they become the #1, #2 or #3 contender. We have seen in the light heavyweight division when Roy Jones was the champ. Roy could play a basketball game that evening and fight the #1 contender that night, which shows us that the light heavyweight division, before Kovalev came around, was a weak division. I didn't think Barrera was that good of a fighter. I thought it was a good trial horse; a guy that can punch a little bit, a guy that can make you fight for 12 rounds, make you use your legs, and make you think a lot in there. He was the right opponent for that. When you have a guy like that, you already know this fight right here is a tune up fight. Fights like that is not for the crowd, it's for you. It was all about going 12 rounds with a natural light heavyweight. He didn't know how it was going to feel to get hit, but his goal was to go 12 rounds with a trial horse and that's what he did.
Andre Ward knows that as a light heavyweight, I gotta make the right fights; I'm getting older, I'm inactive, so let's get in the ring and make the best fights that I can make, and he has to do the fight with Kovalev. I think he should do it after one more fight. I would definitely like to see him take one more warm-up battle. That would be good for him where he could kind of get some more rounds in to get the rust off because Kovalev is a big guy and he can punch. I think I seen Andre take a little more risk than I have ever seen him take. I think he wanted to come out and show the public that he was a natural light heavyweight and this is what he can do. He fought a guy that, to me, I thought was a great opponent. I didn't think the guy could really hurt him or necessarily hit him, but he showed he could fight 12 rounds against a real light heavyweight. I think he should be alright. I think one more tune up will be alright; that way he could really feel how being a light heavyweight feels."
MARK JOHNSON ON ANDRE WARD VS. SERGEY KOVALEV:
"As far as a fight against Kovalev and how it would play out, I think if Andre Ward gets another fight where he shows he's going to be active, I think him and Kovalev would be a better fight. If he takes another fight, you could make that fight a 50/50 or a 60/40, but I feel like if he takes a fight before he fights Kovalev, he has to knock this guy out or get some kind of stoppage. I think if he went into the fight right now, I would have to go with Kovalev if it's his next fight. I think if you give Andre one tune-up, I think you're looking at a 50/50 fight. Once again, I think Kovalev is the biggest and strongest light heavyweight that I have ever seen in boxing, but what's going to happen when he fights a moving target? What's going to happen when he fights a guy faster than him? What's going to happen when he throws two jabs and Andre Ward counters him with his speed? Is he going to get discouraged? What's going to happen if he catch Andre for 2, 3, 4 rounds with them big shots and Andre still there outboxing him? If you look at his last couple of fights, he's known for beating people down, so when you don't get that same reaction from Andre Ward, he may be in for a long fight. I'm just giving it to you from both sides. We know what Andre's going to do. We know how he's going to fight. It ain't no secret in what he's going to do, but can Kovalev make Andre fight his fight? Can Kovalev make Andre fight his fight? So you dealing with a chess match, but I think if he hits Ward with a lot of big shots early and Ward is doing a lot of countering and moving, I think Kovalev may get discouraged."
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]