By Scott Gilfoid: With David Haye’s heavyweight battle with Monte Barrett (34-6, 20 KOs) only a short period of time away, one has to wonder whether or not Haye fully understands how desperate the 37 year-old Barrett is in wanting to win this fight.
According to Barrett, “This is my last hoorah. I’m desperate and desperate people do desperate things.”
If Haye thinks that he can just walk out and blitz Barrett, like he’s done to so many other outclassed cruiserweight fighters during his six-year career, he may be in for a rude surprise because the American will be fighting as if this is his last bout of his life, and will likely be swinging for the fences, hoping to connect to Haye’s glass jaw.
It isn’t as if Barrett will have to guess what kind of strategy that Haye will be bringing into the fight, because Haye fights pretty much the same way every time out. In other words, Haye goes out throwing bombs from the opening bell, letting loose big punches with both hands. It works for him most of the time, but it also leaves him wide open for counter shots from his opponents.
It’s up to Barrett to try and take advantage of Haye’s sloppy defense and try to nail him with a big punch in between his own bombs. For that to work, Barrett will have to be able to take a few, perhaps more than a few, big shots from Haye in order to get his chance to tap Haye’s fragile chin.
Without question, though, Haye will be trying to take him out as fast as possible in order to make an example of him and to try and increase his selling point for a future 2009 fight against Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, both of whom are heavyweight champions.
That’s where the problem may come in for Haye, because he’s never fought a quality heavyweight before in his career, and has only a fight against Tomasz Bonin to show for in terms of heavyweight experience.
While Haye did his job and took Bonin out in the first round, the victory doesn’t say much about how good Haye is as a heavyweight because Barrett would likely take Bonin out in a couple of rounds as well if presented with him as an opponent. Haye’s heart, chin and stamina are all a question mark at this point going into his fight tonight against Barrett.
Haye hasn’t had any serious career-defining fights up to now, and he will be going into this fight with precious little experience against what I consider to be quality fighters. At the same time, both his endurance and chin may be tested tonight by Barrett, and if that does occur, there’s a question whether Haye has what it takes to fight a full 10 rounds, taking shots from a near premier heavyweight like Barrett.
Haye may be a better fighter than Barrett, at least as a cruiserweight, but given that he’s moving up in weight and will be taking bigger shots, this may be more of challenge than what Haye is ready for. If that happens, forget about the Klitschko brothers and title shots for the time being, because Haye will need to rebuild his career after such a dramatic setback.
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