Did Barrett changing stance to southpaw come into play when choosing the bout with Jirov?
Joe Mesi: No, not at all. I was unprepared for him to switch, but with eight weeks preparation I can prepare for anybody or anything. Keith: Joe can you tell me anything specific that you came away from the Barrett fight with that you worked on in camp? Joe Mesi: Gee, how about just to train. You know the Barrett fight; I am embarrassed to say, sadly, it is probably the first fight in my amateur career or professional career that I came unprepared. I had an accident; I was cut over the eye. I didn’t spar the last three weeks, I didn’t run the last three weeks, we didn’t know if we were going to take the fight. We decided the week of the fight, let’s go to New York. We’ll get the stitches out, we’ll take it, and I was ten pounds overweight. I was just not mentally prepared either. I thought that I was going to go in there and get a first round knockout like I did the two previous fights. I was a little over confident against a good fighter. Of course Monte deserves a lot of credit becau
