By Michael Lieberman: I got to be honest with you all, I’m less than impressed with David Haye’s choice of opponent for his November 15th fight at the O2 Arena. I see Monte Barrett as a nominal top ranked challenger, who besides his recent 1st round TKO over a badly unproven Tye Fields, has done nothing in the past five years to be considered for a bout with Haye. If losses to Cliff Courser, Nikolay Valuev, Joe Mesi and Hasim Rahman are enough for him to be given the go ahead for a Haye opponent, then there’s something wrong with Haye’s selection process. Barrett is a good fighter, but he’s only 50-50 in his last six fights. That’s got to tell you something about him, doesn’t it?

This wouldn’t be an issue for if Haye hadn’t promised that he would be taking on a big-named top contender in the heavyweight division for his next fight. I don’t know about you, but for me I wouldn’t consider Barrett as the type of guy that Haye had in mind when he made that statement. Certainly, Barrett, a 37 year-old fighter, has fought some of the biggest fighters in the boxing world in Wladimir Klitschko, Rahman, and Valuev, but he’s also lost to all of them. That’s not exactly an inspiring figure to think about if you’re intention is to impress someone with a big-named opponent, is it? For me, it would seem a little more logical if Haye had made a truly bold pick by selecting a fighter like Alexander Dimitrenko, Chris Arreola, James Toney, Rahman, Eddie Chambers or Tony Thompson.

Those are fighters that I consider big-named fighters, the ones that the boxing public would probably be impressed with seeing Haye fight. I’d even throw in the unbeaten contender Kevin Johnson’s name in the hat as a more worthy challenger. Unlike what Haye has been saying in the media about few heavyweight fighters wanting to fight him, I’d be willing to bet that all of the heavyweights that I listed would jump at the chance to fight Haye if he were to ask them. Indeed, Chambers, Johnson and Thompson made statements to the fact that they’d like to fight him, yet in the end Haye picks Barrett rather than one of them. Now why is that? I frankly am disappointed in Haye and see him in a whole new light.

According to Haye, “Barrett is pretty much a perfect opponent.” A perfect opponent? A fighter with three losses out of his last six fights a perfect opponent? Barrett has never been known as a puncher, which is probably the main reason that he was selected by Haye instead of the more dangerous fighters like Chambers, Dimitrenko, Johnson, Rahman and Thompson. Also, Barrett was crushed in two rounds by Cliff Couser only last year. Haye could have seen that fight and figured, ‘hey, not only does this guy not hit hard, but he also has a weak chin, let’s fight him.’ Whatever the reason for his selection of Barrett, I think Haye bypassed some much more qualitied fighters than him. I think Barrett would have been a good opponent years ago, say in 2000 when Klitschko stopped him, but not now that Barrett’s nearing 40.