By Scott Gilfoid: Looking a lot less confident than I’ve seen him before on the Steve Bunce Boxing show, heavyweight David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) gave a hint at retirement if he’s unable to get by Monte Barrett, his first real test as a heavyweight, on November 15th at the O2 Arena in London. “If I can’t get by Barrett, I don’t belong in the sport…If can’t get past Monte Barrett, what’s the point of anything? I’ll go hang myself and that’s the last you’ll ever hear of me.”

Haye immediately said, “that’s an exaggeration,” although he looked dead serious when he said the his remark about hanging himself. It’s obvious that Haye, 27, is putting a great deal of pressure on himself not only to defeat Barrett, 37, but to do it in an impressive manner. With a huge British audience backing him in his fight with the experienced American, Haye may be setting himself up for failure should he try and go out quickly and score a fast knockout. This is exactly what happened in the case of Barrett’s last opponent, the 6′9″ Tye Fields, who came right at Barrett trying to knock him out in the first round. As it turned out, it as Fields who ended up being knocked out in the 1st round when Barrett hurt him with a big right hand and then took him out with a flurry of hard shots.

Barrett played possum in his fight with Fields, backing up constantly as Fields came forward throwing bomb after bomb, and finally when Fields threw a big right hand, Barrett countered him with a tremendous right that badly hurt him. This will likely be how Barrett will fight Haye, because he knows that he can’t match up with the British fighter if he tries to trade shots with him like his last opponent, Enzo Maccarinelli, did in Haye’s 2nd round TKO win in March.

“He’s the gatekeeper to the heavyweight division. Only the good fighters beat him like Klitschko and Valuev. If I’m saying I’m the best fighter in the word, then I should have no problems with Barrett,” said Haye.

In choosing Barrett, who’s previously fought a number of quality heavyweights like Hasim Rahman, Nikolay Valuev, Wladimir Klitschko, Joe Mesi, and Dominick Guinn, Haye is meeting someone who has extensive experience against fighters that may be better than Haye can ever hope to be. Aside from Klitschko, who stopped Barrett in a sixth round TKO in July 2000 in London, Barrett did well against Mesi, Valuev and Rahman, and should have been given the nod against Mesi as far as I’m concerned.
For his part, Haye has only fought once as a heavyweight, defeating Tomasz Bonin by a 1st round TKO last year. Bonin, however, isn’t in the class of the aforementioned heavyweights, and would likely be handled with ease by Barrett as well. Bonin was also stopped previously be Audley Harrison in 2004.

Barrett was also respectful of Haye, saying “This is a GQ fight. They [boxing fans] don’t want to see him beating up on James Toney. He’s not the best looking guy in the sport…I have a lot of respect for Haye as a fighter and as a business man. He’s an excellent champion. I commend him for taking a step up and fighting me.”

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