Sullivan Barrera

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 defending his WBC super featherweight title against mandated Takashi Miura 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 7, 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.

Following the loss to Ward, Barrera agreed to fight undefeated contender Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. The fight took place at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California on 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. 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.

On December 2015, Barrera faced Karo Murat in an IBF eliminator, the winner was to become Sergey Kovalev's mandatory challenger. The IBF had previously ordered Barrera to fight Artur Beterbiev 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's promotional outfit at the time, Main Events.

Barrera defected to the United States in 2009, after two previous failed attempts.

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 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. On November 2014, Barrera defeated Rowland Bryant in the undercard of Hopkins-Kovalev.

Barrera won the gold medal at the 2000 AIBA Junior World Championships as a middleweight. In that tournament, Barrera defeated Chad Dawson in the semi-finals and Imre Szellő 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.

Sullivan Barrera (born 25 February 1982) is a Cuban professional boxer. As an amateur, he won the middleweight gold medal at the 2000 AIBA Junior World Championships.