01.07.08 – by James Slater: Former cruiserweight king, David “The Hayemaker” Haye is in need of an opponent for his heavyweight re-debut this October – who agrees with me when I say Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett would be the perfect guy to land the fight?
Haye is still looking for a recognisable name to fight against in the first phase of what he hopes will be heavyweight domination, so why not let the recent conqueror of the huge Tye Fields have the opportunity of testing Haye at the end of the year? Barrett can punch, he’s experienced and he’s a fairly big name; in other words, he’s perfect for Haye and the first step in his fulltime heavyweight invasion. There has been talk of Haye boxing Hasim Rahman but, (to this writer’s knowledge anyway) no-one has yet been officially signed to fill Haye’s upcoming TBA slot.
Barrett, as we saw against the ungainly “Big Sky” at the weekend, can be dangerous. And no, Haye is not in any way shape or form a fighter to be compared with Fields. Haye can fight, is a proven world champion and he has an excellent amateur pedigree also. But, Haye IS unproven up at heavyweight, he still has a suspect chin in the eyes of many fans and he needs an opponent who will make him work, at least for a few rounds. Barrett, a good if unreliable fighter, would be perfect – surely?
Haye has done more than his share of talking just recently. Telling everyone what he will do to the current crop of heavyweight belt holders, “The Hayemaker” now has to back up his boasting. Who else would be more than a little curious to see the answers to the following questions: A: what will happen if Barrett lands on Haye the type of clean right hand that took out Fields? B: what will happen when Haye lands his best shot on Barrett? and C: what will happen if Barrett takes Haye into the later rounds?
I’m not for one minute saying “Two Gunz” would beat Haye. But he would almost certainly provide a good measuring stick with regards to how good the stiff-punching Londoner can be when mixing it with the big guys. Barrett doesn’t get stopped too often, and when he does fail to either win or see the final bell he rarely goes out quickly (the avenged, possibly fluky, TKO loss to Cliff Couser aside). Indeed, the huge Nikolay Vaulev, in Barrett’s WBA title shot, could only get rid of the 37-year-old after 11 long rounds. It figures, then, that if Haye were to blow Barrett away quickly he will have scored a reasonably impressive win.
I have the feeling, however, that should the fight get made, Barrett just might extend Haye into the middle, or perhaps even late rounds. Remember what Barrett did in his fight with that other hot prospect heavyweight in Joe Mesi? Though he’s gone downhill a touch since that fight, Barrett might still be able to reveal a number of chinks in Haye’s armour as well.
Monte Barrett is as good a choice as anyone for David Haye’s “coming out party” in October. There is, however, at least a slight chance that “Two Gunz” could spoil the party!