07.10.06 – By Scott Frake: Nikolay Valuev (45-0, 32 KO’s), the WBA heavyweight champion, knocked out challenger Monte Barrett (31-5, 17 KO’s) in the 11th round tonight at the Rosemont Arena in Illinois. From the start of the fight, Barrett, 35, appeared very nervous and ill prepared for Valuev’s big punches. From the earliest moments, Barrett was getting caught clean by right hand bombs thrown by Valuev. At one point, Barrett appeared to almost go down after getting tagged with a right. In the 2nd round, Barrett did a little more to win the round, mostly due to his wild looping punches.
In the 3rd to 5th rounds, Valuev landed numerous chopping right hands to the head of Barrett, who seemed helpless to stop him. Part of the problem for Barrett, was that he had no power when punching upwards at the huge 7-foot Valuev. When he would land an occasional blow to the head of Valuev, it had little if any effect on him. Certainly, it didn’t slow the Russian down one bit, since he continued to stalk Barrett, relentlessly.
Barrett seemed to get his act together in the 6th round, landing desperate left hooks to the side of Value’s head. This was perhaps Barrett’s best round of the fight, although it seemed due to the fact that Valuev was not throwing as many punches, looking as if he was measuring Barrett for one big knockout punch instead.
Late in the 7th round, Value seemed to hurt Barrett with a short powerfult right hand. However, Barrett survived to make it to the end of the round.
In the 8th round, Valuev knocked Barrett down with a big left hand. To his credit, Barrett got up and fought bravely, firing back wild left hooks, most of which badly missed Valuev by a mile. However, a few connected flush to Valuev’s face, without any noticable effect.
Barrett appeared tired and hurt in the 10th round, and out up very little offense during this round. Late in the round, Valuev landed a big right hand that buckled Barrett’s knees, although he didn’t go down. Valuev landed several more big punches before the round ended.
In the 11th round, Barrett looked exhausted at the start of the round, and slipped down on the canvas during the first minute. At this point, Valuev, sensing that Barrett was hurt, threw a powerful leaping right hand that landed on the side of Barrett’s head. Valuev followed with a beautiful left, right combination that knocked Barrett to the canvas. Badly hurt, Barrett made it up, only to be met with barrage of punches thrown by Valuev. Finally, with Barrett unable to defend himself, his trainer jumped into the ring to protect Barrett from taking anymore punishment. The referee then stopped the fight at 2:12 of the 11th round.