Me too, to be honest. He can't fight Klitschko or Peter because they have fights lined up, but I thought he would still get someone decent like Ibragimov or Rahman.
Even with those top guys not being available I thought he could get in with a top 10 contender like the one's you mentioned. My ideal fight would to have had him face someone like Areola to see if he could take a punch from a legit HW.
Realistically I think Haye will probably smoke barret like a pack of kools, but Monte isn't a pushover. I wouldn't bet on this fight, as Barrett has a solid punch and could crack that chin. Can't wait to see it though, hope Haye puts on a good show.
I believe David Haye will win this fight. Barrett is decent but he is now 37 and well past his prime. Barrett has been KO'd by Cliff Couser in 2 rds, and took a heavy beating against Valuev suffering multiple knockdowns, he was schooled by Hasim Rahman & lost to the lumbering giant Lance Whitaker (who was coming off a loss to Lou Savarese). Yes he has recently beat Tye Fields in 1 Rd but to be honest I was not that surprised as I expected Fields to be exposed early against the first decent Heavy he fought. If you look at Barrett's best wins you will see that he is really just a journeyman type who on his day can give you a tough fight. I mean yes he beat Dominick Guinn but so did Robert Hawkins, he pushed Joe Mesi close but so did Cruiserweight Vassily Jirov, He beat Tim Witherspoon by SD but Tim was 44 at the time, he beat a 40yr old Greg Page on pts and 35yr old Phil Jackson on pts (Jackson having been beaten in 1 Rd by Jeremy Williams) and previously unbeaten Owen Beck who has lost all three of his fights against decent Heavyweights by KO. For those who say Haye has fought nobody apart from Mormeck. In 2005 Haye KO'd the fairly decent European Cruiser Vincenzo Rossitto in 2 Rds, yes the same guy who just lost a close MD to top american prospect Jonathan Banks. Then he beat former European Cruiser Champ 6'5" big punching Alexander Gurov in RD1. He defended against the fairly decent unbeaten Dane Lasse Johannsen 14-0 who although not a world beater had a couple of decent wins. He also beat the unbeaten Italian Giacobbe Fragomeni who was tough but eventually stopped in 9. He moved up to Heavy and defeated the hugely overrated Tomasz Bonin who although rated by the WBC at 11 was really nothing more than a reasonable European Level Heavyweight with a padded record, who had no business being rated in the Top 50 as such he was dispatched in under a round. Then Haye took on Jean Marc Mormeck for 2 out of 4 Cruiserweight belts and got off the floor to KO him in 7. Then as we know took on Enzo Maccarinelli (who had just beaten former WBC Cruiser champ Wayne Braithwaite) and destroyed him in 2 rds for 3/4 of the Main Cruiserweight titles. To be honest it seems to me that these achievements at Cruiserweight are definitely better than what Barrett has achieved at Heavyweight. Also bear in mind most of Barrett's best performances have come on close pts decisions, so he is hardly the big puncher the Tye Fields fight made him look. I see this as an early to mid round stoppage win for David Haye which will prove nothing really as at this stage Barrett is a B-C level Heavyweight at best. Still Barrett is definitely a big step up from the Tomasz Bonin's of this world and therefore a good 2nd opponent at Heavyweight. Frankly though I hope this win will not earn Haye a title shot, as he really has to prove himself before taking on Wladimir Klitschko.
Thank you David Haye for fighting a live dog. I'll take the Hayemaker by KO/TKO in 5. Barrett will give a good account of himself, but Haye will ultimately get the better of the exchanges.
Haye can not seem to please anyone on ESB. All the good fighters that are available for the date may have just turned Haye down so it is unfair to blame Haye all the time. We dont know the full details of what offers his made and to who. My pic would be Ibraimov or Toney but they have refused to fight Haye for the good money I am sure e is offering.
