06.10.06 – By Dave Domenico: On Saturday October 7, WBA champion Nikolai Valuev will face American challenger Monte “Two Guns” Barrett live on HBO. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding this fight. With Valuev standing at seven feet tall and weighing over 300lbs, that makes him a unique attraction by itself. However, what makes a person most curious about this championship fight is this question: Can Valuev fight? Is he for real? Is this another hype job? Well Saturday we may get that answer. Monte Barrett is not the most threatening of opponents.
Barrett, 35, appears to be a fighter pulled off the shelf as a hand picked opponent to make Valuev look good for his American Debut. For this article, I will simply list a few possible outcomes for this fight. I think that would be more effective rather than reiterating my opinion. Here is a short list of the possible outcomes from this fight. As boxing fans, we hope we get an exciting and interesting fight. Saturday night we will see what we get.
Scenario #1: This is a three round blow out by Valuev. Valuev is so huge that he has the ability to knock out anyone if he can hit them. Barrett has been knocked out in the past. This fight may just go a few rounds until Valuev clubs Barrett with a slew of punches to end the show.
Scenario #2: The fight goes the distance in Valuev’s favor but it’s a snoozer. This fight could end up being a 12 round sparring session with both fighters taking the cautious approach to winning. With Valuev’s huge size being just enough to control the action, he could coast for the whole fight and do enough to win a majority decision.
Scenario #3: Barrett scores an underdog victory by outclassing the bigger slower champion. Although Barrett is a B level fighter at best, he has shown some heart and determination in the past. Barrett had good showings in his biggest fights but in the end did too little too late. If Barrett shows his heart in this fight, and uses his speed to his advantage, he could outmaneuver and outbox the bigger slower champion.
I do not think Barrett has the power to knock out Valuev. Nevertheless, stranger things have happened. In my opinion, this fight will likely play out to one of the three outcomes listed above. For me, as well as all boxing fans, we hope it is either the first or the third scenario. We will see what David and Goliath bring us Saturday night.