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.
Setanta Sports News, the rolling 24-hour sports news service, will broadcast a special heavyweight edition of Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour at 2pm on Thursday 3 October. The straight talking pundit will be joined by David Haye and Monte Barrett, who are set for an explosive clash at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday 15 November, which is exclusively live on Setanta Sports.
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? 
After what seemed like ions for former cruiserweight champion David Haye to make his decision for his next opponent for his November 15th bout, only his second as a heavyweight, he finally made up his mind with today’s announcement that he will be fighting top contender Monte Barrett at the O2 Arena in London. Barrett, 37, has a good resume having fought top fighters such as Tim Witherspoon, Lance Whitaker, Wladimir Klitschko, Hasim Rahman, Nikolay Valuev, Joe Mesi and Dominick Guinn. Most of the time, Barrett has done well against the top tier fighters with the exception of Klitschko, who was simply too big and too powerful for him, stopping Barrett in seven rounds in July 2000.
By Scott Gilfoid: According to Dan Rafael from ESPN, the manager Adam Booth and his promoter for heavyweight contender David Haye (21-1, 20 KOs) are speaking with heavyweight contenders Eddie Chambers and Monte Barrett as potential opponents for Haye’s next fight on November 15th at the O2 arena in London. Haye, 27, recently was close to signing on 6’5″ American J.D. Chapman for the fight, but he backed out. Booth will have the final say so over who gets the pick – Barrett or Chambers – but both are fine fighters and Haye couldn’t go wrong by choosing either of them. 
By Tony Krebs: 37 year-old heavyweight Monte Barrett (34-6, 20 KOs) pulled off a stunning 1st round KO of the giant 6’8″ Tye Fields (41-2, 37 KOs) tonight in a bout scheduled for 10 rounds at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fields, 33, who has built up an impressive knockout string with very careful matchmaking in his nine-year career, went right after Barrett in the 1st round, bum rushing him like he has many of his other 42 opponents in his career. In this case, however, Fields was way over his head in terms of quality, having fought mostly low C-level fighters at best during his entire career, and in no way ready for a quality professional like Barrett.