Monte Barrett may have punched himself into a fairly major fight this past Saturday.
With his 57-second destruction of overblown project Tye Fields, Barrett (34-6, 20 KO) is now looking like the chief potential opponent for incoming heavyweight attraction David Haye. There have been negotiatons to send Barrett over to London to face Haye on October 18.
Haye (21-1, 20 KO) would be setting himself up with a very winnable first serious foray into the heavyweight world, and would also be striking while the iron is as hot as it'll get on Barrett. "Two Gunz" is not an especially big heavyweight, either. At 6'3" and fighting 220-230 pounds, Barrett would have no height and probably no weight advantage on Haye, who stands 6'3" himself and weighed in at 217 in his last attempt at fighting heavyweight, a first round TKO of Tomasz Bonin last year.
The upcoming Haye bout is really his fourth fight as a heavyweight -- he also knocked out Valery Semishkur in 2004, and Garry Delaney in 2005. It's probably not quite the massive deal most are making it out to be; Haye's body is built for the division.
Plus, Barrett's just not that good. He's also 37 years old. It's a winnable fight against a sort-of name opponent who has challenged for titles before, whose big recent win came against a completely underskilled fighter that shouldn't have been in the ring to begin with.
All in all, sounds good to me. Monte can take a few, Haye can certainly throw them.