Rising heavyweight Monte Barrett will be taking on his good friend Hasim Rahman on August 13th for the interim WBC heavyweight title. The fight will be a Don King promotion and will take place from the United, Center in Chicago on Showtime PPV. Barrett was in the midst of training in the Poconos and participated in a conference call with the press recently, and here is a little of what he had to say.

-On who he has been sparring with in preparation for this fight- I've been sparring with Talmadge Griffiths, Erick Kirkland, and Jermaine Woods.

-On fighting a close friend in Rahman- Yeah we are real good friends, and I have lots of respect for his family, but we are in a blood sport business. This should make for a competitive fight. I was close friends with Dominick Guinn and I took his head off.

-On fighting with urgency- Every fight I fight with urgency and I feel this brings greatness.

-On his recent appearance on the game show, "The Price is Right"- On August 13th the price will be right for me when I take the WBC title.

-On how he feels about this fight- I'm so focused, it's not even funny, and I'm in tremendous shape.

-On whether this is his biggest fight of his career- This fight is my biggest fight, so was the Guinn fight, and so was the Joe Mesi fight. Every fight at the time is my biggest fight. You can't look ahead.

-On why he took this fight over challenging Chris Byrd for the IBF title- I felt this was a good fight to take. It was a win-win situation, I get to fight either a boxer who can't punch, or a puncher who can't box. So, I picked on how I felt at that moment, and I got the puncher who can't box.

-On how this would affect his kids, who are friends with Rahman's kids- They have grown up in this business, and know not to take it personally. Hopefully when this is all over we can all go back to being friends.

-On what he brings to boxing- I'm a matchmaker's dream, I fight. I work my butt off and I always bring my best. I feel I bring charisma and character and I am good for boxing.

- On Vitali Klitschko- Vitali who???

     The Barrett-Rahman fight can been seen on Showtime PPV on August 13th as part of Kingvision. Also on the card will be Ricardo Mayorga, Luis Collazo, and Oliver McCall.

8-4-2005