Jesse Hart rocks Sullivan Barrera several times en route to a decision victory!
In a fight for positioning, Sullivan Barrera is looking to put his name in the hat for one of the light heavyweight titles.
In the other corner, Hart is chasing his white rabbit, Gilberto Ramirez. Ramirez has beaten the Philadelphia native twice in two competitive bouts.
Barrera’s two losses have come at the hands of two high level technicians in Andre Ward and Dmitry Bivol. Both fighters are very solid ring veterans who’re on a quest for a world title.
Stylistically, this is a great contrast in styles. Hart, who’s from Philadelphia, is a pressure technician and will look to push the pace.
He sometimes gets lazy with his jab and defense but, he brings lots of physicality as well as intensity.
Barrera is a balanced boxer who prefers to fight from a somewhat neutral stance. He picks apart his opponents while focusing more on moving laterally rather than forward or backward.
The Breakdown
To start the fight, a very interesting dynamic unfolds as Barrera takes a very aggressive posture stalking Hart. The Philly fighter is moving a bit excessively.
This is probably due to this being Hart’s first fight at light heavyweight. The first round has some controversy as during a break, Hart lands an uppercut that was ruled legal. It forced Barrera to take a knee, though it wasn’t called a knockdown.
Then, in round two, Jesse Hart landed an uppercut as the fighters became tangled. He seemed to drop the Cuban fighter but, it was ruled a slip.
The punch clearly hurt Barrera and he struggled for the rest of the round. In the fourth round, Sullivan Barrera nearly drops Hart with an overhand-right that buzzes him badly.
In round six, Jesse Hart times and lands a snapping right-hand that nearly takes out Barrera. The Cuban vet is able to survive but, the fight has a flow that favors Hart, as he’s definitely shown he can hurt his opponent.
In round eight, Hart lands beautiful a counter-left hook over a lazy jab by Barrera, scoring a knockdown! The replay would show it was a slip but, it puts the veteran in a precarious situation on the cards.
As it looks, the Cuban veteran may need a knockout or knockdown to give himself a win. Barrera started off the tenth and final round well.
However, he just didn’t have the gas in the tank to pull out a knockdown or knockout. Now we wait for the card. The final scores read 99-90, 96-93, and 97-92, all for your winner Jesse Hart!
Post-Fight
In the post-fight interview, Jesse Hart made it clear that he suffered an injury to his right-hand in round seven.
He was honest about his performance and acknowledged that he will need another fight before looking at the champions Dimitry Bivol, Arthur Bieterbiev, and Sergey Kovalev.
In the case of Sullivan Barrera, he definitely showed his thirty seven years of age, as well as his rough outing with Bivol. The most logical thing for him would be some much needed rest and maybe a soft touch or two.
By: Corey Cunningham
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