Sullivan Barrera (born 25 February 1982) is a Cuban
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
. As an
amateur, he won the middleweight gold medal at the 2000
AIBA Junior World Championships
The IBA Youth World Boxing Championships and the IBA Junior World Boxing Championships are amateur boxing competitions organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), the sport's governing body, for "Youth" competitors—ages 17 or 18 ...
. He challenged once for the
WBA light heavyweight title in 2018.
Amateur career
Barrera won the gold medal at the 2000
AIBA Junior World Championships
The IBA Youth World Boxing Championships and the IBA Junior World Boxing Championships are amateur boxing competitions organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA), the sport's governing body, for "Youth" competitors—ages 17 or 18 ...
as a
middleweight. In that tournament, Barrera defeated
Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson (born July 13, 1982) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019. He has held multiple light heavyweight world championships, and was one of the most highly regarded boxers in that division between 2006 and ...
in the semi-finals and
Imre Szellő
Imre Szellő (born July 27, 1983) is a Hungarian professional boxer who has qualified for the 2008 Olympics.
Career
2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships
At the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago Szellő missed out on a bron ...
in the final. Barrera took the bronze medal at
Torneo Playa Girón in 2002 and 2003. Barrera's record as an amateur was 285-27.
Barrera defected to the United States in 2009, after two previous failed attempts.
Professional career
Early career
Barrera made his professional debut in August 2009. He won his first five fights by way of knockout. On his 7th fight, Barrera won the
WBA Fedelatin and the
interim
An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities.
Interim may also refer to:
Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept)
*Provis ...
WBO Latino
light heavyweight titles. Barrera was ranked by the WBA and the
WBC as one of the top 15 light heavyweight contenders early in his career. Barrera trained with
Gennady Golovkin's coach,
Abel Sanchez
Abel Sanchez is a Mexican-American boxing trainer. He is best known as the former coach of Gennady Golovkin, and has trained other boxers such as Lupe Aquino, Terry Norris, and Murat Gassiev.
Early life
Sanchez was born in Tijuana, Mexic ...
.
In November 2014, Barrera defeated Rowland Bryant in the undercard of
Hopkins
Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spell ...
-
Kovalev Kovalyov (russian: Ковалёв), often written as Kovalev, or its feminine variant Kovalyova, Kovaleva (), is a common Russian surname, an equivalent of the English surname Smithson (derived from the Ukrainian word koval' (), which means "black ...
.
Title contender
Barrera vs. Murat
In December 2015, Barrera faced
Karo Murat in an
IBF
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
eliminator, the winner was to become
Sergey Kovalev's mandatory challenger. The IBF had previously ordered Barrera to fight
Artur Beterbiev
Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev ( ce, Арту́р Асильбе́кович Бетерби́ев russian: Артур Асильбекович Бетербиев; born 21 January 1985) is a Russian-Canadian professional boxer. He is a unified l ...
and
Igor Mikhalkin but negotiations for both of those bouts fell through. Barrera blasted Murat, dropping him in round 4 before stopping him in round 5. Barrera and Kovalev were both signed to
Kathy Duva
Kathy Duva is an American boxing promoter and current CEO of Main Events, a New Jersey-based boxing promotion company. In 2019 she was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Early life
Duva graduated from Montclair State College with ...
's promotional outfit at the time, Main Events.
Barrera vs. Ward
Barrera next faced former unified
super middleweight champion, Andre Ward. Ward was moving up to light heavyweight. The fight took place at Ward's hometown
Oracle Arena
An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.
Description
The word ''or ...
. En route to a wide unanimous decision victory, Ward dropped Barrera to the canvas in the third round as he turned a left hook while on the ropes. Barrera was also dropped in the eighth round from a body shot, but referee Raul Caiz Sr. saw it as a low blow and as a result deducted a point from Ward. Ward dictated the pace for the vast majority of the bout, showcasing good strength and ring generalship against Barrera. The three judges scored the fight 117-109, 119-109, and 117-108. Ward landed 166 from 463 thrown (36%) whilst Barrera landed 111 of 722 punches thrown (15%). When asked about the potential mega fight against Kovalev, Ward said, "It's never a problem. You look at my track record. I want to fight the best. I've always fought the best. Sergey Kovalev, he's a great champion." For the fight, Ward earned $1.85 million and Barrera earned a $450,000 purse. The fight averaged 1.064 million viewers and peaked at 1.152 million viewers. After the loss, Barrera parted ways with Abel Sanchez.
Barrera vs. Shabranskyy
Following the loss to Ward, Barrera agreed to fight undefeated contender
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. The fight took place at the
Fantasy Springs Casino
Fantasy Springs Resort Casino is a casino and hotel located southeast of Palm Springs near I-10 in Indio, California. It is owned and operated by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe. The hotel has 250 rooms and the c ...
in
Indio, California in December 2016. Barrera exploited Shabranskyy's defensive weaknesses to stop Shabrankskyy in the seventh round. Barrera hit the ground running, knocking Shabranskyy down in the first round. The latter would return the favour in round 2, dropping Barrera with a combination of punches following a check left hook. As the rounds progressed, Barrera established his rhythm and started breaking Shabranskyy down. Shabranskyy would go down once again in round 5 after a
one-two combo
In boxing, the "one-two combo" is the name given to the combination consisting of two common punches found in boxing – a jab (thrown with the lead hand) followed by the cross (thrown with the back hand). In boxing parlance, fundamental punch ...
. Round 7 would be the end for Shabranskyy, as he was knocked down with an
overhand left. He was able to get up but the referee waived the count.
Barrera vs. Smith
On 12 May, deal was in place confirmed for a fight between Barrera and
Joe Smith Jr. Early reports indicated the fight would be part of a HBO triple-header also featuring
Miguel Berchelt
Miguel Ángel Berchelt Cervera (born 17 November 1991) is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBC super featherweight title from 2017 to 2021.
Amateur career
Berchelt tried out at the age of 16 for the football club he supported as a c ...
defending his WBC super featherweight title against mandated
Takashi Miura
is a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2017. a former WBC Super featherweight Champion. He was born in the Akita Prefecture and lives in Tokyo.
Professional career
Miura vs. Diaz
Miura won the WBC super feat ...
on 15 July 2017 in Inglewood, California. The fight was officially confirmed on 18 May and shown live on
HBO: Boxing After Dark. Smith knocked Barrera down in round one with a left hook to the head, but Barrera dominated the rest of the fight and went on to win via unanimous decision (97-92, 97-92, 96-93) after 10 rounds. Smith was beaten to the punch in almost every round, only landing 61 of his 320 punches thrown (19%), whilst Barrera was more accurate in landing 187 of 484 thrown (39%). In round 4, Smith was hit with a clean uppercut and by the end of round 6, his team urged him to go for a knockout. Referee Jack Reiss had the ringside doctor take a look at Smith after the seventh, but the fight continued. Ringtv scored the fight wider 98-91, only giving Smith two rounds. There was confusion in Barrera's corner as well as the HBO commentary team in regards to the fight being 10 rounds instead of 12. The referee told both boxers to touch gloves at the start of the 10th round. At first the HBO commentary thought the referee had made a mistake, but were later told, both fighters agreed to the fight being 10 rounds. The fight averaged 617,000 viewers on HBO and peaked at 719,000 viewers.
A few days later, Smith released a statement on social media that he had broken his jaw and believed to have broken it in round two, “Somewhere during the second round I was injured and was in a lot of pain, but I did not want to let it show and I refused to quit.” As the fight went on, he admitted the pain got worse and the fight got tougher. On 20 July Smith had surgery to repair his broken jaw.
Barrera vs. Valera
After Andre Ward retired and vacated his world titles, the
WBA elevated
interim champion
An interim championship is an alternate title that is awarded by the sanctioning bodies of professional boxing, and in other combat sports such as kickboxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts.
Occasionally, the champion of a particul ...
Dmitry Bivol
Dmitry Yuryevich Bivol (russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Бивол; born 18 December 1990) is a Russian professional boxer who has held the WBA light heavyweight title since 2017. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2013 World C ...
to full champion. He was announced to be fighting Trent Broadhurst, ranked #11 at the time, for its vacant world title. The announcement was met with incredulity by the media, due to many fighters ranked above Broadhurst being available. Barrera also took to Twitter to express his displeasure at being overlooked, as he was ranked #2 at the time. Barrera is scheduled to return on November on the undercard of
Kovalev Kovalyov (russian: Ковалёв), often written as Kovalev, or its feminine variant Kovalyova, Kovaleva (), is a common Russian surname, an equivalent of the English surname Smithson (derived from the Ukrainian word koval' (), which means "black ...
-
Shabranskyy. Barrera was reportedly offered to fight Kovalev but he rejected it.
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
later reported that Barrera would be facing
Felix Valera.
Kathy Duva
Kathy Duva is an American boxing promoter and current CEO of Main Events, a New Jersey-based boxing promotion company. In 2019 she was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Early life
Duva graduated from Montclair State College with ...
, Barrera's promoter, later stated that Barrera would become mandatory challenger to Bivol, after the latter's win over Broadhurst.
Barrera continued his winning streak with a unanimous decision (98-88, 97-90, 97-89) win over Valera. Barrera was dropped for the fourth time in his last five fights halfway through the first round, as Valera dropped him with a left hook. Barrera would return the favour and knock Valera down towards the end of that same round. The remainder of the fight saw Barrera out-box Valera and win most rounds. The fight was characterized by both fighters trading low blows, with Valera being deducted points for constant fouling in rounds 3, 6, and 8, while Barrera lost a point in round 9.
Barrera vs Bivol
In his next fight, Barrera fought for a world title for the first time in his career, against WBA light heavyweight champion
Dmitry Bivol
Dmitry Yuryevich Bivol (russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Бивол; born 18 December 1990) is a Russian professional boxer who has held the WBA light heavyweight title since 2017. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2013 World C ...
. Bivol dominated throughout the fight, which culminated in a big right hand to Barrera's temple in the final round that dropped the Cuban boxer. Barrera was determined to beat the count, but the referee saw he was in no condition to do so, and Bivol was awarded the TKO victory, handling Barrera his second career loss, his only loss previously coming against Andre Ward.
Barrera vs Monaghan
Barrera battled Sean Monaghan in his following fight. It was a one-sided victory for the Cuban, who won convincingly on all judges' scorecards, 99-91 twice and 98-92, while also hurting and bloodying Monaghan in the process.
Barrera vs Hart
On 15 June 2019, Barrera fought Jesse Hart, who had moved up to light heavyweight prior to the fight. The bout was rough with both boxers doing plenty of holding and hitting during breaks. Barrera managed to land clean shots throughout the fight, but Hart, despite his technical flaws, did enough in the eyes of all three judges to win the bout, while also scoring one knockdown in the process. This earned Hart his first victory at light heavyweight, and was Barrera's third career defeat.
Professional boxing record
References
External links
*
Sullivan Barrera - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankingsa
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrera, Sullivan
Living people
1982 births
Cuban male boxers
Light-heavyweight boxers