By Jeremy Harness

photo credit: rocnationsports.com–Andre Ward delivers a right against Sullivan Barrera in Ward’s 29th career victory at Oracle Arena on Saturday night

OAKLAND – The verbal battle may have been won by Sullivan Barrera, but Andre Ward took care of the physical affair quite handily.

Fighting in front of thousands of his friends and fans in his hometown of Oakland – a crowd that included the likes of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Marshawn Lynch – Ward earned the right to face IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev with a unanimous decision victory over Barrera at Oracle Arena Saturday night.

Ward (29-0, 15 KO’s) won by scores of 117-109, 119-109 and 117-108, but he eluded to the fact that he may have a tune-up fight before taking on Kovalev

Ward may have turned back the physical challenge of Barrera, but the losing camp continued the verbal matchup.

Earlier in the week, Barrerra had called Ward “a coward,” and immediately following Saturday’s fight, his trainer, Abel Sanchez, said that he does not give Ward even a minimal chance of beating Kovalev.

“Who made Abel the voice of boxing?“ Ward asked. “I hear that guy talk about a lot of people in a disrespectful manner. Who gave him the absolute authority to speak (about) people.”

Barrera (17-1, 12 KO’s) made it a point to try to use his size to his advantage throughout the fight. He often forced Ward into the ropes or into a corner and pound away at the body. However, Ward had an answer for Barrera’s attack, and as a result, he came away with the decision.

While Barrera was the more aggressive fighter and continually moved forward, Ward was far more technically skilled, and that became more evident as the fight progressed.

The first two rounds were pretty much a feeling-out process, but in the third round, things started to get interesting. To start the round, the Cuban pushed Ward to the ropes and began working the body, only to get caught with a left to the side of the head that put him on the seat of his trunks.

As the fight continued, Ward found more success in countering Barrera’s lunging right hand with his own short left hook, a plan that Ward said was developed in training for this fight. Meanwhile, his defense was very much a factor as well, severely limiting Barrera’s effectiveness.

Even though Barrera threw more punches – 722, to be exact – he landed only 15 percent of them. Meanwhile, Ward landed 36 percent of the 463 punches he threw during the course of the bout.

However, one of Ward’s landed punches came a tad below the belt in the eighth round, and even without so much as a warning, referee Raul Caiz, Sr. took a point away from Ward. Two rounds later, he suffered a small cut over his left eye as a result of an accidental clash of heads.

Ward was nonetheless able to withstand those tiny obstacles to come away with the easy victory.

In the undercard, Jayson Velez, who was challenging for Joseph Diaz, Jr.’s NABF featherweight title, did his best to win some favor with the Oracle Arena crowd, donning a Warriors hat to go along with a robe that featured the team’s logo along with the number 30. It seemed to work quite well, as he got the majority of the cheers during the pre-fight introduction.

That didn’t help him very much after the fight started, however. The Puerto Rican could not get through Diaz’s defense, while the champion continually raked Velez with hard shots to the head and body

Diaz developed a cut on the corner of his right eye in the eighth round, but Velez did not have the punching power to pose any threat to him, and Diaz retained his title by unanimous decision.

In earlier action, Hayward native Aaron Coley won his six-round middleweight bout by unanimous decision over Urmat Ryskeldiev, during which he lost only one round on two scorecards while pitching a shutout on the other.