David Haye - Is Barrett The Right Opponent?
Published October 2, 2008 by Martin Bean
David Haye’s assault on the Heavyweight division starts on 15th November against Monte ‘Two Gunz’ Barrett. Haye had for months told the world how he would pit his abilities against a genuine top 10 Heavyweight and Barrett is ranked by the WBO (Current WBO Champion is a certain Wladimir Klitschko) at number six, so his path towards the title will progress quickly with a victory.
But is Barrett a good test? In my eyes, it’s almost the perfect opponent in many ways. As said, Barrett’s ranking moves him towards the aforementioned Klitschko and he has also been in with some of the biggest guys in the game. He can bang, with 20 KO’s from 34 victories, but at the same time is not a pure knockout artist.
It’s a big test for Haye in his first outing as a fully-fledged Heavyweight – whilst he took on Tomas Bonin previously in the top division, it was a fleeting visit to the Heavyweight waters.
Ominously for Haye, Barrett has form in upsetting Heavyweight hopefuls – in his previous outing he vanquished Tye Fields (then 41-1 with 37 KO’s) in a single round. He upset Dominic Guinn over 10 rounds, handing Guinn his first defeat. So Barrett certainly has the experience to overcome a fledgling Heavyweight such as Haye.
Conversely, Barrett can be beaten and stopped but has generally been beaten in good class – Klitschko himself bested Barrett in 2000 (KO7 - in London coincidentally), Hasim Rahman won on points over 12 in 2005 and Nikolai Valuev stopped Barrett in 11 in 2006.
More worryingly though for Barrett is that he was stopped in 2 rounds last year by Cliff Couser. Couser is generally not considered a huge puncher with just 14 of his 26 wins coming early. Although the result was reversed months later (Barrett this time stopping Couser in 2) it does suggest some fragility.
So as ever with David Haye, it’s going to be exciting to watch. Haye may well take Barrett out early with one of his ‘Hayemakers’ but then if Barrett can weather the storm and take Haye into the later rounds things may get very interesting for the spectator, but difficult for Haye. Roll on November 15th.
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