By Michael Lieberman: After watching the latest interview of David Haye on the Steve Bunce show, I got to say I’m really starting to lose whatever little respect I had Haye. He’s all over his November 15th opponent, Monte Barrett, giving him a lot of sweet talk on Bunce’s program. “I’ve been going on about heavyweights being big fat slobs and this guy isn’t. Monte is going to come after me. He’s fast, he’s coming off three spectacular knockout wins. If he hits me with the same shots he hit Tye Fields with, I’ll probably end up in the same position as he did. I can’t afford to get hit with those bombs.” It sounds like Haye is looking for an escape valve, so that he can have an excuse if something goes wrong like him getting stretched by Barrett. I can’t get used to hearing him say nice things about one of his opponents, because he’s usually slamming them and calling them fat slobs and what not.

Probably some of Haye’s fans might think he’s saying this to talk up the fight so that he can make Barrett, a fighter that has lost four out of his last nine fights, look like more of a credible opponent to his boxing fans, but I think it’s for another reason. From my lookout on this, Haye appears afraid of how he’s going to look if he ends up being knocked out by a fighter that he was originally talking down on, and wants to ensure that Barrett is put forth in the best possible light just in case that happens. After all, if Haye gets beaten by a good fighter, then it’s not so bad and he doesn’t have to experience nearly as much shame and humiliation then he would if he was fighting a terrible one.

Frankly it doesn’t matter how much Haye tries to talk Barrett up, making him turn from bronze to gold in the public’s eye, he’ll still end up with egg on his face if he takes a beating from the 37 year-old Barrett. Barrett’s only ranked number #9 in the WBO, and was long ago taken apart by Wladimir Klitschko in a crushing 7th round defeat that left no question that Wladimir was the better fighter. If Haye is getting beaten by Barrett, then it pretty much equates to Haye being a failure as a heavyweight. I guess I can see the logic in wanting to talk Barrett up with faced with looking like a loser should he lose to him, but I personally wouldn’t do it. I’d stick to my guns and go down with my dignity intact.

I also wouldn’t put myself in that position in the first place by fighting Barrett. It’s silly that after all his talking, Haye has decided on fighting Barrett rather than one of the top guys like he originally said he was going to do over a month ago. If you say you’re going to do something, you got to stick to your word and do it. With all that Haye has said in the past about wanting to fight a top level fighter, I would assume that he meant someone like Alexander Dimitrenko, Tony Thompson, Nikolay Valuev, Oleg Maskaev, Chris Arreola or Eddie Chambers, wouldn’t you? I just’ can’t wouldn’t ever picture Haye fighting Barrett after all the times he said he wanted to face a top guy. Well, Haye has made his bed and now he’s got to live in. I imagine he’ll keep talking Barrett up until the public believes that he’s the second coming of Wladimir Klitschko or something similar.

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