By Jim Dower: Right about now the Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko must be licking their chops after seeing David Haye’s performance against heavyweight Monte Barrett on Saturday night. While Haye did what he had to do, knocking the 37 year-old Barrett down five times in the fight and scoring a knockout victory, he looked very beatable in the process, getting knocked down in the 5th by Barrett.
The knockdown was ruled a slip by the referee, thus letting Haye off the hook. The end of the fight came sudden when Haye landed a beautiful right that stunned Barrett sending him backward.
Haye then finished him off with a left to the head. Referee Richard James Davies then counted Barrett out at 1:28 of the 5th round.
Afterwards, Haye said “I said I would be explosive, that I would be going out and throwing bombs from the start. A lot of people said I lost power, but I’m the hardest puncher pound for pound in the world in any division. The man on my right [Vitali Klitschko, who was standing next to Haye at the time] is the one I’m going after, him and his brother, whichever one wins the coin flip. He [Vitali] and his brother [Wladimir Klitschko] are the two best fighters in the world. That’s’ why I only want to fight these guys…I’ll end up the victor, I’m positive about that. I don’t mind if it’s Wlad or Vitali. They’re both brilliant in my eyes.”
Haye, 28, came into the fight with only limited experience at heavyweight, a victory over a C-class fighter. His lack of experience showed in the early going, as he missed often with wild swings at Barrett. However, he did succeed in landing a couple of decent right hands against, who looked terrified. For his part, Barrett seemed out of it even before the fight.
When he was coming into the ring, he tried to sprint up to the ring and leap over the top rope, but unfortunately for him, he tripped over the top rope and landed on landed on his back on the canvas. It had to have been a deeply humiliating experience for him, and certainly got him off on the wrong footing in the fight.
The British crowd laughed loudly after his fall, but he did a good job of showing that it didn’t bother him. It probably did though. Haye fought well in the 2nd round, landing a few right hands, but missing quite often. He didn’t look sharp, however, missing with wild swings and appearing almost amateurish. In the second half of the round, Barrett came forward pressing the attack and tagged Haye with seven hard right hands to the head. While being attacked, Haye backed up in a straight line and showed that he can’t fight going backwards.
In the 3rd round, both fighters took turns throwing wild punches, missing by a mile with most of them and looking terrible. After Barrett landed a hard right hand to the head, both fighters went into a clinch where Barrett landed a hard rabbit punch to the back of Haye’s head. The referee gave Barrett a stern warning at that point.
Shortly after that, Haye landed a leaping left hook that dropped Barrett to the canvas. The punch was thrown from a mile away, yet Barrett’s reflexes were slow in picking it up. After Barrett got up, he tried to smother Haye on the inside, clinching him. However, while in a clinch, Haye repaid Barrett, hitting him with a beautiful right hand rabbit punch to the back of his head, sending Barrett down for the second time in the round.
The referee, however, failed to warn Haye for his rabbit punch, and the knockdown stood up. In the 4th round, Barrett attacked hard at the start of the round, landing a lot of jabs to the head of Haye and exposing him as having little in the way of defensive skills. Haye, however, landed a good combination that drove Barrett back.
He then followed him and seemed to get his feet tangled with Barrett’s, causing Monte to slip to the canvas without being hit. While he was falling, Haye tried to hit him with a left but barely missed. While Barrett was down, Haye landed a grazing right hand to the head. The knockdown stood up, and no warning was given to Haye about hitting Barrett late.
Later on in the round, Barrett tried to land a right-left combination but missed both, leaving him off balance. Haye then took advantage of his condition and hit him with a right uppercut sending him down for the second time in the round. Due to him being off balance, the knockdown probably should have been waived off. It wasn’t.
In the 5th round, Haye missed a left-right combination of his own, leaving himself off balance in the process. Barrett then took advantage of his situation and landed a hard left hook to the head that sent Haye down to the canvas. While he was down, Barrett connected with a weak right to the head. The referee then waived off the knockdown, calling it a slip, and deducted a point from Barrett for hitting him while he was down.
Even though the exact thing had happened a round earlier, it was ruled differently for the American. From my vantage point, the knockdown in the 5th seemed good, although the referee did the right thing by penalizing Barrett for a late hit. However, the same should have been done in the 4th, with Haye needing to have a point taken away from him for landing a right hand after Barrett was down. However, he wasn’t.
After Haye was knocked down in the 5th, he stayed down on the canvas for ages, looking both hurt and a little shocked and indignant. He got up finally and waited patiently for the referee to take away a point from Barrett. When the action finally resumed after what seemed like five minutes, Haye looked rested and fully recovered from his knockdown.
He then came after Barrett with a series of wild swings, missing again and again before finally hitting pay dirt when he connected with a good right hand followed by a left in which his forearm connected to the head of Barrett rather than the glove. The knockdown stood, Barrett was counted out and Haye had his victory. The fight was officially stopped at 1:28 of the 5th.
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