By Eric Thomas: Heavyweight David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) showed brief glimpses of good power against Monte Barrett on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, knocking him down all total five times before the one-sided mismatch was stopped in the 5th round.
Along the way, however, Haye showed a certain crudeness, a lack of refinement that would be expected for a fighter ranked as high as he is (number #3 in the World Boxing Organization). He got the job done, but was easily hit by Barrett on the rare occasions that he would let his hands go.
Haye, 28, found himself on the canvas in the 5th round, courtesy of a left hook from Barrett. The referee gave Haye a big break, not counting the knockdown, which seemed to be genuine. Haye got an even bigger break when the referee then took a point away from Barrett for landing a late right hand while Haye was on the canvas.
By the time the action was resumed, Haye was able to recover from the knockdown and go on to finish the thirty-seven year-old Barrett with a hard combination to the head. After the fight, Haye said that he’s going after both of the Klitschko brothers, and while fight whoever wins the coin toss for a match with him.
Vitali Klitschko stood by his side, listening to Haye brag about his victory and looked like he really wants to be the one that fights him next instead of Wladimir.
As for the fight, Haye had little to worry about because Barrett missed more often than not when he would try to throw a punch. Haye missed about as often, but he made up for it by landing the much harder shots and hurting Barrett on the occasions that he would land.
Haye punched hard at all times, showing little technique as he tried hard to take him out with big shots. Going into the fight, most people gave Barrett little chance to beat Haye, and figured he’d be beaten in a round or two.
In that prediction, it was more or less accurate, except that many people figured that Haye would look much better than he ended up. Maybe his off performance was due to the weight gain. After all, Haye did come in at 215, some 17 pounds heavier than he did in his previous fight as a cruiserweight against Enzo Maccarinelli.
But at 215, Haye looked much bigger, almost too big and muscle bound for his own good. His speed was still there, at least somewhat, but he was clearly much slower than he had been in his previous fight against Maccarrinelli.
It’s unclear whether he kept his weight low by design or if it was a case of him not being able to gain anymore than that. He’s going to have to get bigger than 215 if he hopes to tangle with the 250 pound Klitschko brothers, both of whom would have probably manhandled the small version of Haye on Saturday night.
Standing next to Barrett, both brothers are much bigger than him, yet he looked bigger than Haye on Saturday night. Whatever the case, Haye is going to have to not only improve dramatically over his sub par performance against Barrett but also he’s going to need to put on at least another 25 to 30 pounds if he’s going to have a chance against either of the Klitschko brothers.
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