Monte Barrett

By Scott Gilfoid: Looking a lot less confident than I’ve seen him before on the Steve Bunce Boxing show, heavyweight David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) gave a hint at retirement if he’s unable to get by Monte Barrett, his first real test as a heavyweight, on November 15th at the O2 Arena in London. “If I can’t get by Barrett, I don’t belong in the sport…If can’t get past Monte Barrett, what’s the point of anything? I’ll go hang myself and that’s the last you’ll ever hear of me.”

Haye immediately said, “that’s an exaggeration,” although he looked dead serious when he said the his remark about hanging himself. It’s obvious that Haye, 27, is putting a great deal of pressure on himself not only to defeat Barrett, 37, but to do it in an impressive manner. With a huge British audience backing him in his fight with the experienced American, Haye may be setting himself up for failure should he try and go out quickly and score a fast knockout. This is exactly what happened in the case of Barrett’s last opponent, the 6’9″ Tye Fields, who came right at Barrett trying to knock him out in the first round. As it turned out, it as Fields who ended up being knocked out in the 1st round when Barrett hurt him with a big right hand and then took him out with a flurry of hard shots.

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.