Showing that he still has a little left in his career, two-time title challenger Monte Barrett (33-6, 19 KOs) easily stopped an over-matched Damon Reed (43-13, 30 knockouts) in the 2nd round of a scheduled 10-round bout last night at the 944 Super Village at Stetson Canal, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Barrett, 36, knocked Reed down in the 1st round, and then another time in the 2nd, leading to the referee stopping the bout at 2:47 of the 2nd round. Barrett, who is no longer ranked in the top 15 having lost three out of his last five bouts, landed effectively with his right hand in the first round, snapping Reed’s head and driving him back.
Barrett, normally never considered much of a puncher, landed a good right hand in the 1st round that dropped Reed to the canvas. In the second round, Barrett continued blasting away at Reed, hitting him with combinations to the head. Finally, Reed went down under a hail of punches, and this time he didn’t get up. It was a good win for Barrett, no doubt it, but it was made less impressive considered the class of Reed, who is no more than a C-class fighter. Though Barrett hopes to get another title shot, I don’t see that happening due to Barrett’s low ranking. There are many other more deserving fighters at this point than Barrett that should be getting title shots.
Besides, if Barrett is serious about wanting to get another title shot, he should work his way back into contention by beating a couple of top 10 fighters, and then wait in line for his turn. On the other two occasions, Barrett has fought of the title, he was beaten by Hasim Rahman on August 13, 2005, in one of the most boring heavyweight fights of the year. Most recently, Barrett was stopped in the 11th round by World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev on October 7, 2006, a fight that was fairly competitive until Valuev stopped Barrett with a late surge in the fight.
Earlier in his career, Barrett was beaten by 7th round TKO Wladimir Klitschko, on July 15, 2000, in a highly publicized in which Barrett was knocked down five times.