David Haye stepped back up to heavyweight last night and took apart a decent fighter in Monte Barrett.

Haye has been hyped up to the nth degree but has always been to back to it with terrific K/O wins in France against Cruiserweight king Jean-Marc Mormeck and then unifying the division by knocking out Enzo Maccarinelli in the second round.

With that he had done everything in the division and he proclaimed that he was going to step up and dominate the big boys. It all started last night and Monte Barrett came over as the #6 challenger in the WBO rankings but he looked like a nobody as Haye went to work.

Whilst Haye took his more experienced man apart it wasn’t plain sailing for the Londoner. He was down in the fifth but wasn’t given a count as Barrett hit him after he’d gone down. Instead of his opponent getting a count, Barrett lost a point but this fight was never going to the cards.

Barrett was down twice in the third and twice in the fourth, it surprised me that the fight even went into the fifth and after Haye had gone down, you knew that he was going to come looking for Barrett’s chin and a left cross and a straight right put the Yank on the deck for the fifth and final time as Ritchie Davies waved off the fight.

It was a good outing for Haye but also slightly worrying. You don’t want to be walking on to bombs in the heavyweight division and technically Haye looked naïve at best. However he has the heart and he has the punching power to take out anyone and if one of the Klitschko brothers wants to take him on next summer then it’s a fight we would all like to see.

I’d personally think it would be better to beat up another couple of guys first, take out a Holyfield or a Rahman and really whet the appetite for a bout with one of the brothers and then probably the other straight afterwards.

The heavyweight division needs David Haye and he could be the saviour of the sport. I look forward to his next fight and he is without a doubt one of the most exciting boxers on the planet.