Listen Now:
By Johnny Walker
Veteran heavyweight Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett is taking this Saturday’s rematch with New Zealand’s David “Tuamanator” Tua very seriously.
How seriously, you ask?
Barrett says that he has forgone sexual relations for 6 weeks while preparing for the follow-up to one of 2010’s best heavyweight fights, a back and forth affair in Atlantic City that saw Barrett drop the powerful Samoan for the first time in his long career.
That fight ended in a controversial draw, but Barrett knows the rematch, which is taking place in the Tuamanator’s back yard, is going to be even tougher going: hence his decision to give up the delights of the flesh.
“I can’t tell y’all what I really sacrificed until after the fight, but I’ve really given up a lot, I’ve abstained from sex, and I never ever abstain from sex,” Barrett (34-9-2, 20 KO) tells ONE news.
I’ve been away from sex for 6 weeks, I’ve ran countless miles, I’ve boxed 120 rounds with 10 different people, I trained with a gas mask, felt like I had to puke and I was going to die, I’ve done a lot to prepare for this fight.”
Barrett’s intense preparations show that he knows the enormity of the task ahead of him. Tua (52-3-2, 43 KO) has been acting twitchy and irritated in recent interviews, like he can’t wait to get in the ring. He has tired of talking about a loss this time meaning the end of his career, and lately has brushed such sentiments aside.
The last time Tua acted this way was before his 2009 fight with Shane Cameron, also in New Zealand, and he gave an inspired, lethal, even scary performance in that bout, brutalizing Cameron from the start before knocking him out cold in round two.
Barrett is well aware of the danger that comes with a ticked-off Tua who is out for blood.
“I’m fighting with a guy who could end my life with one punch, so am I going to proceed with caution? Of course,” Barrett says.
“I know he has a point to prove because the way the[first] fight went for him, if he had beat me, stopped me, decision or whatever, he would have gone on to bigger things, bigger purses and things would have been different for him, so of course now he feels like he’s under the radar.
“The David Tua who I fought’s not coming in the ring, (it’s) the David … with blood and fire in his eyes.”
