Simms Tells Barboza ‘You’re NOT a Big Name, Bro’ & Reveals His Plan to End It March 14th

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. What up? It's your boy, Ward Jones. I'm hanging out with my man, Andre Ward. We two Hall of Famers will bring y 'all to a show called a Hall of Game. A show where we discuss boxing, sports, life, and entertainment from our view. How much better than that can you get? Me and Roy don't always agree. The one thing you will get is a Hall of Fame worth the game. I want to welcome my next guest to the Hall of Game, Kenny Sims. Ken, you got a big fight, a 12-round main event coming up. The fight is around the corner, Kenny. You in a main event against Arnold Barboza at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, in a 12-round welterweight fight.

0:48Brother, is it a title on the line? Because where they get the 12 rounds at? I didn't see a belt attached to this main event. There's no belt attached to it at all. So they just making y 'all go 12 Just because they want y 'all to go 12 Yeah, yeah I mean I was with it, I was cool with it I ain't had no complaints about it But yeah, it's not, it's no limited No title that I know of attached to it You know, the fight is around the corner How has camp been for this fight? How the tools looking? How the weapons looking? How are you feeling? How are you looking at camp right now? I've been feeling good, I feel great actually The 147 thing is kind of probably a big plus But it got something to do with that and be feeling better.

1:28Because I've been at 40 since I've been professional. So 11 years. But then like the last five, six, I've been taking, I take a fight at 47 every now and then. So it's nothing new to me. It's not like a first time out thing fighting at 147. I know that when I fight at 147, I feel good. So I'm just looking forward to it because I've been working hard and I've been able to work harder because I'm not breaking my body down as much trying to get to 140. Fans and supporters of the sport, they don't understand this whole weight thing. They don't get it, right? So if you got to go through training camp, you come into training camp 15, 20, whatever your number is coming into camp, and then little by little by little, you got to boil yourself down.

2:19You got to start losing that weight little by little, but the workload continues to be the same, right? you were campaigning at 140 now you're now you're gonna fight at 147 you just have less to lose so people you're happier in camp you got more energy in camp you smiling when normally you'll be frown right now i wouldn't be cracking that one smile right now that's what i'm saying you go out there and win this fight kenny are you trying to campaign at 147 or are you fluctuating from 140 to 147 depending on the opportunity. I've told the team and everybody that I'm comfortable, still comfortable making 140.

2:58I just need the time that we just talked about to take it slowly and get there. But really, I'm just looking, whatever, I take care of this, the biggest opportunity, 140 or 147, because I'm comfortable with either one. Your last fight was in August of last year at home in Chicago, right, against Oscar Duarte. you had the house rocking it was a good fight it was a back and forth fight you lost a razor thin decision I know you felt you won that fight talk to me about losing that fight at home just losing in general you're not a fighter that loses a lot what are your takeaways from that fight now that you've looked back on it it was a close fight uh I still think I did enough to win but I can't I can't argue with the decision because I didn't dominate the fight enough to make it clear that there's no way y 'all can get him to fight.

3:52So, like, any interview I've done, you've never heard me say I got robbed because I'm not a person that's not real with myself. I'll never say I got robbed in a fight that was competitive. It was a competitive fight. I thought I won, but I know there's a lot of things I could have done better to make it a just clear win for me. So in the competitive spirit, I want to get that back, and that's the fight I want over anything else after I take care of Barboza. As far as fighting at home, it was not a couple years ago, but about five, six years ago. I know nobody would ever think I was going to be in that position to even be able to do that because I took two early losses, and I felt like I got thrown wrong to the side.

4:43it was like ain't nobody looking for Kenny Sims no more so that was like a dream come true I just need a redo and do it again with a storybook ending which is W. Talk to me about fighting at home I fought at home many times and I love fighting at home it's different but that difference sometimes makes you want to fight on the road because it's a different type of pressure it's one thing to be in an arena when it's split 50-50 some people want to see you win some people want to see you lose. It's different when you're in an arena when 95 % of the people in there, 90 % of the people in there are rooting for you and they expect you to win.

5:21I saw you in the fight with Duarte fighting sometimes a little bit too much when I felt like you should have been boxing. He's also a guy that applies a lot of pressure to. He's not easy to box a guy like Oscar Duarte. do you think the pressure to perform at home the crowd pushing you got in your head a little bit and made you fight a game plan you shouldn't have fought or was that the fight that you planned to fight from the beginning so looking at the fight right i walked the first round that was that was the game plan i boxed the first round was perfect i think i don't think i got touched first round the second round he hit me and i'm going into the fight i'm hearing about how hard of a puncher he is.

6:06He hit me in the second round with something like I seen he loaded up on it. It was like he caught me and I was like, oh, that's it? And I think in my head, I was like, all right, I don't got to box as much. And I got kind of veered off from the plan of just keeping it clean and boxing. And then I got to trying to hurt him, trying to, I got into his game a little bit. Then like like we talked about a couple weeks ago, it's hard to to get that. Once you get into it, get into that mode. It's hard to. And you can see me going, trying to go back and forth. Yeah. When you when you start fighting, like like standing there going punch for punch, it's hard to get back into being smart and boxing.

6:52It's very hard to make that shift back. That's what we were talking about. Yeah, so I think he, the power, me expecting him to hit like a brick and then getting hit and it wasn't like a brick in my head. I mentally was like, I don't got to move that much. I don't got to box. I can work this right here. How does Kenny Sims bounce back from a loss? Sometimes you lose and cats aren't never the same mentally. sometimes the embarrassment the you know the shame the disappointment how did you bounce back from a performance that you felt you won but you did not get the nod in I think I with me mentally I'm cool like I've been through this before like I've been through worse like when I lost early on because I hadn't even made it to this level and I lost so people kind of was like he don't got it he don't belong here.

7:51It's funny. It's actually a funny story I got for you that I keep in my head at all times. And it motivated me a lot. In the fighter meeting, when I followed up with Rodriguez, right? You were there, and then in a question, Tim Bradley, he asked me, he said, you here, but do you really think you can win this fight? I said, yeah, I think I'm going to win this fight. Then And Coach K said something. My dad said something. And then Tim was like, I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know how you do it. He hit harder than you. He's bigger than you. Blah, blah, blah. I took offense to that.

8:30And I keep that in the back of my head at all times. So me coming back from my losses, I've had bigger losses. Not bigger losses, but like been in worse situations. And I had to bounce back from that. So this ain't nothing. Now, you said you've been chasing Arnold Barboza for a long time. How did this fight finally get made, and why now? Well, I don't know, because he didn't want to do it. He said no initially this time, too. So, somehow, by the grace of God, it got made. But he said no this time initially, too. And we were looking at different people, different opponents. But then they came back, sunk it, bunker back around, and somehow it got done.

9:10But I don't know. That's a question for him, because I have no idea. I just said yes every time they mentioned his name We're going to ask him We're going to ask him I talked to Shakur a couple weeks ago And one thing I gave Shakur credit for is I said I appreciate how Shakur will give His opponent some credit A lot of times fighters will be like He don't do this, he don't do that He's trash, he can't beat me And they're not real with themselves They don't acknowledge what the opponent Does well So what are some things that Arnold Barboza does well and things that you've been training for to shut down and things you have to be alert and aware of in this fight?

9:51Yeah, I've been saying that in interviews the whole week that I'm not one of the people that's delusional and saying to somebody I'm fighting sucked. He's been ranked top 5 '10 for years, so he's got to be a good fighter. He can't be a bum. I think he's good. He likes to box. We do a lot of the same things a little bit. Mine just might be a little more athletic. but he works off the jab. He likes to keep his distance. I know he likes to keep his distance. He wants space at all times. So we've just been working on taking that space away from him or just working that space because I'm cool with space.

10:26I like space. I think I'm one of the guys that's able to do a lot of different things in the ring. And I think that might be my problem sometimes. I want to do one thing, but I can do this and I can do that. and instead of sticking to one thing, I try to do all of them in the same fight. Well, hold on. So if I'm listening to you right, you're talking about closing the distance, brother. So you're talking about going mid-range and close? Nah, just – What kind of fight you talking about having? Nah, just because he likes to step back whenever you step to him. That's all. He needs space to get his shots off.

11:00Yeah, he needs space to get his shots off. So I get mine, then I can either go away or I can smother him and then get back to my range. But he's only really effective at one range, and that's right at the end of the shots. And his feet are kind of slow. He makes a lot of mistakes. He brings his back foot up a lot. It's like in the TFMO fight I watched, he just, his feet wasn't, he couldn't keep up with the foot speed or, and the jab just kept him distracted the whole fight. So you don't respect the foot game of Arnold Barboza? No, not really. He's cool on the back foot, but if you make him come to you, he got a problem then if it's just like angles, just straight, like if you're in front of him, you make him get an angle, then he got a problem.

11:56I guess I'm going to ask it a different way. Sometimes you got to ask a question the right way to get the right answer. So are you saying that you're just going to close the distance to smother him, to stop his offense? Or are you saying you're going to take him to the trenches and dog him out? What you saying? I'm trying to understand what you're saying. I mean, I plan on taking him there. I plan on taking him there because I've never seen him ever do anything on the inside. Taking him there to do what? To the trenches? Yeah, I plan on testing him, seeing what he's going to do in there because none of his fights that I've watched, you get inside, he's not going to throw nothing on the inside.

12:30He's going to either hold or bag up, try to push you off. I don't see no inside skills. So what you're saying is you're going to take him back to the south side of Chicago? You take him back home? I always got to do that. Okay. I'm just trying to get some clarity. I just want to make sure because the trenches are different depending on where you're from. So your trenches is south side of Chicago. So you're going to take him back home? I got to test that, see where he is. I know I got that in abundance. So I got to see where he's at. Yeah. Man, it is a crossroads fight for both of y 'all. You got to have it.

13:04You said this. He said this. Last one for me. What is the statement that Kenny Sims has to make March 14th? I got to leave no doubts. I've been doubted my whole career about where I belong in the game. and he's been he's been undefeated, he just lost his last fight, that was his first loss so he's been he's been having people saying he's going to be champ he's going to be this, he's going to be that and I've been doubted so I need to go in there and erase all doubts like even him, when he talk about me, he kind of make it seem like I don't belong in the situation or I'm not worthy or he's ranked higher than me, but now we're in the same position.

13:53We're in the same spot, and it's here. So I got to go in there and leave, no doubt, because he's been saying – well, even before this, we got DMs. I DMed him when they first – they first brought the fight to me. When he said no, I DMed him, and I was like, yo, I know five years ago I wasn't ranked high, blah, blah, blah. But right now we both coming off a loss, so it makes sense now to do it. Yeah, he said, he DMed me back. He said, really, I'm just fighting, trying to fight other big names. And I was in my head. I told him, I said, bro, you're not a big name, bro. I'm not a big name. We got cool names in the sport, but you're not a big name.

14:33Just because you fought and lost to a big name don't make you a big name, bro.

14:40So, and then it went on to something other than we went arguing, but it was some funny stuff. He told me I could be a sparring partner. I told him I would beat the guy out of him. Yeah. See, this is that talk they give. This is that talk, man. Hey, man, to fight, man. I've been telling him, like, bro, he just kept saying he's a big name and he want to fight other big names. And I just kept telling him, like, bro, that's a little delusion. You're not a big name. Like, you're not Shakur. You're not Tiafemo. That's who you thinking gave you the right to say you a big name. You just like me. You can walk down the street.

15:19Ain't nobody going to say nothing to you in most places. Well, listen. What I love about this sport is that no matter what it said, no matter how either camp, either team feels, either fighter feels, y 'all got a date. Yeah. And y 'all are going to figure it out very soon, and somebody's going to be right, and somebody's going to be wrong. brother I wish you well man finish camp strong and healthy and uh we're gonna be tapping in and watching brother thank you for coming on the hall of game appreciate it I want to welcome my next guest to the hall of game Arnold Barboza Arnold you got a big fight coming up the main event on the zone at the Honda Center in Anaheim California against Kenneth Sims there's been a lot of back and forth man with you guys I'm gonna get into that in a second though but I just want to just first just say man how has training camp been how are you feeling how are the tools looking how the weapons looking brother oh man it's going good man we've been out here you know big bear you know for the past six weeks you know the whole camp as you look like you've been in big bear no haircut no nothing you know we've been out here man uh you know training hard you know abel's you know abel's gym and you know getting his knowledge as well so it's been a great camp man we have some great sparring up here you know coming into the last week of sparring so we you're toned down a little bit but man it's been it's been an amazing camp and i feel good kenny sims has said publicly that that he's been chasing you that he's been trying to get the fight you didn't want the fight you didn't want one you didn't want the fight i want to ask you is that true and why is this fight happening now no i mean at the end of the day i just think the the timing of you know of our careers were different times you know when he wanted to fight you know with me he wasn't ranked at all in any you know in any organization and without talking about when we're like in top rank days you know because i was when i was in top rank you know like he was coming up I was already ranked.

17:09I was chasing Ramirez, you know, as you know, you know, I was getting promised this, getting promised that, you know, I was number one WBO ranked for like two years and I wasn't getting no shot and he wasn't ranked at all. So, you know, Matt, like that, you know, I have nothing, you know, I don't, you know, I think Sims is a great fighter. You know, I think he's a tough fighter. I think he has it all, man. He's good at everything. You know, he's good at countering. He's good on the inside. It's a dangerous fight. You know, I just think now is the time for us to finally, you know, to get together and to fight, man.

17:38I know he was saying that I was avoiding him and ducking him, but that's never been the case. There's a website that he can go on. It's called boxrec.com. And you can type in Arnold Barbosa Jr. And you can look at my last three or four fights. And there's no way that I duck anybody. You know what I mean? People don't understand. Coming from my last run that I had, I fought back to big fights, back to back to back. And I think people don't talk about it enough. We fought our meters in November. We beat Catero in the UK. in February. Then we fought T.O. in May. You know, so my body didn't recover right at that T.O.

18:13fight but, you know, it's okay. You know, we had to take the opportunity and here we are. Talk to me about that T.O. fight. That was your last fight in May against T.O. Fumil Lopez and, you know, you came up short in that fight. You've had time to reflect and think about it. What worked, but then also what didn't work in that fight? Oh, man. You know, So, you know, there's no excuses, man. Teal was a better man that night. You know, I just think, you know, like I fought, you know, I told Golden Boy I wanted to be active, man, and active they made me. You know, I got what I wanted. But I got to remember, you know, I ain't a 20-something-year-old young bull no more, you know.

18:54So I think, you know, it was crazy because, you know, coming out of that Armita's fight, you know, a week later, I got right back into Canford Catero. And then right after the Catero fight, literally that Saturday after, you know, I was doing like a meet and greet at Dave and Buster's out here, and I got the teal fight. So I had to go right back into camp. So my body didn't really recover the way it should have been, you know, because people take one fight, a big fight, and get like a six-month break, five-month break, and they take a big fight. I was doing, man, you're talking about I was in training camp for nine months straight.

19:22You know what I mean? And I think ultimately, you know, the recovery part and letting my body heal right was kind of what happened in the teal fight. But, you know what, look, man, you know, I think also, you know, my body was just tapped out. My mind was tapped out. Man, I was in Big Bear for nine months of my life and I was really like, man, I want to go home. That was the first time I ever said that. I was like, man, I wanted to come home. I missed the little things with the kids. It was brutal, man. But it was an opportunity that I had to take because I know I was chasing Tio for so long that I know that I wasn't going to get that opportunity again.

19:52So I had to take the fight. So you were feeling like that and saying those kind of things in the middle of camp? Man, yeah. To be honest with you, toward the end of camp, like the last the last week of sparring i kind of knew i was like man like this this is different you know i mean i i don't feel this fight like like i wasn't even juiced up anymore like i was i just had that it was already mentally i was broken i was broken you know i was just like man like nah i'm tapped out i kind of and then with the atmosphere you know on top of it in new york it was kind of like it felt like a sparring session you know for all the fights you know it kind of wasn't it wasn't the same oh no for the for the people that don't know i think outsiders fans who you know writers they just look at it like a fighter wants to be needs to be active a fighter needs to be active but but you're in your mid-30s right now explain like what that means why going to back to back to back camps how that can have an effect on you as a fighter yeah man i don't think they understand that you know these camps are they're hard camps you know they're hard camps especially out here in big bear man i don't know if man people need to understand that the elevation you know the the solitude you know the altitude it's it's it's you know the runs um you know and on top of that the sparring partners man you know you're fighting elite fighters so you got to bring in some tough sparring so you know when you're when you're training and sparring i think the training camps is kind of what kind of takes more out of you than the fight actual fight you know and uh and people don't understand that man and you know i'm telling you that that teal fight my legs were done man like i was running up here big bear man i was like oh man what's going on like and and i remember i'm not 20 something in your zone no more like you said you know i felt like i was like uh coming up again like a like like back in the unimas days you know like i was fighting every other month man that's how it felt i was like man i'm getting these i'm finding big fights so so you know it was it was definitely a learning experience man uh you know um and plus and to top it off people don't understand uh um you know i went to saudi so the flight was 18 hours talking about time change 13 hours and then i went to the uk which is eight hours different time difference so i was not i was doing everything, traveling.

21:53It was hard on my body, man. It was really hard on my body. I felt like my body was so stressed out that it was building fat. The Teal fight, if you look at the Wayans, man, I didn't even look ripped. I was like, man, what happened is the first time I went into Camp Moore ripped than I came out. It was just, man, my body was just too stressed out. It was just too stressed out. I took a good time off, man, more than I wanted to, but we're back. We're back, and we've got a tough fight ahead of us. I know that that's how I knew it was getting ready to be time for me to be done because sparring three days a week in camp and having four or five sparring partners like that, that that started making less and less sense for me.

22:35Like I started I started to think like this is crazy. Like I come in here and rumble three days a week, 10 rounds, eight rounds, sometimes 12, 13. Like that stuff started started to make less and less sense for me as I got older. So that's how I knew it was probably time, man, for me to walk away. you guys are fighting at 147. You've campaigned at 140. Tell me about this. Is this a new weight that you are going to campaign at, or is this just where the opportunity is at the moment? No, man, this is a weight that we felt like we needed to move up to already. I think it was time. You know, I spent most of my – people don't know that my first – my pro debut was actually at 47, you know, because when I came back to boxing, I was 215 pounds.

23:21so I had to kind of drop weight you know little by little so I had my debut at 47 but it's been so long you know I mean you know I got used to 40 and uh it was just time man right you know 11 12 years at 140 you know um the teal fight kind of kind of you know it kind of put a stamp on it like okay I gotta move up you know um and man trust me it's gonna feel good not losing this extra seven pounds man believe me you know so uh so man uh we're excited and this is the this the weight class that we want to start campaigning at. You both are coming off of losses. Kenny Sims is coming off of his loss to Oscar Duarte.

23:57What did you take from that loss with Kenny Sims and Duarte? Man, you know what? It was a close fight. It was a real close fight, man. I mean, I've been looking at Sims with all his fights for a while, man, because obviously he's been calling me out, so I've been looking at his fights. And Sims, man, he's a good fighter, man. People underestimate him, man. He could go lefty righty he's good at boxing he's good at countering so you know we're definitely gonna have our hands full you know but that Duarte fight you know Duarte is just a you know he's a slugger you know me and Duarte don't have that that same style so no way I could but you know we you know I kind of really didn't look at those that fight I looked at it something you know a few times me and my dad did a film on Saturday but well we looked at a lot of his other fights and um man seems good he's a dog man he's a dog and I know he's hungry for this man he's been wanting me so he got his opportunity man it's interesting when a a great boxer faces another great boxer when they start to see different styles but you you see another patient guy i would i would prefer somebody coming to me than me having to lead all the time and track somebody down because i've been so used to guys coming at me so it's going to be an interesting fight a fight that i'm excited about are you looking at it like a high stakes chest mass obviously you guys don't have moments where you rumble, but without giving up too much, do you see it as like a high stakes boxing match?

25:12Yeah, man. You know, I think Kenny Simpson is a high boxing IQ. You know, so do I. So it's going to be a chess match, I think, you know, in the beginning. But like I said, you know, I've been known to change my style up. I can brawl. I can box. I can kind of do it all just like Sims. So who knows what his game plan is. So we're kind of ready for everything, you know. And I think, you know, all my fights, you know, leading up to the Sens fight has kind of built me for this moment. You know, like you fought on Amides, who was a very aggressive fighter. You know, I fought him. I'll box him. You know, a cat or I was more on my front foot.

25:45I had to come after him. He's more of a boxer counter puncher, you know, and beat him. You know, Teal, man, that guy's just athletic. You know what I mean? That was a tough fight, you know. And I still landed a good shot. I felt like I hurt him in the sixth round. You know, that's me at 670%. So, you know, we're excited, man. And, you know, this is going to be a great fight. And I'm excited to, you know, be at home. You know, I haven't fought out here in a long time. So, man, we're very excited. Arnold, this is my last one for you, man. You are 34 years old. You're coming off of a loss. Sims is coming off of a loss.

26:16What type of statement do you need to make in this fight? Oh, man, I need to make a big statement. You know, I think this is a must-win fight for me. You know, especially if you want these big fights that we've been asking for. You know, so this is a must win. And, you know, and Sims is a very tough guy. So the knockout comes, the knockout comes. But if not, man, we got to win, you know, unanimously. We got to beat them every round. So we're very excited, man, especially for the card too, man, the card stack. So we're looking forward to bringing Honda Center, man, some fireworks. Brother, I know it's not easy to jump on these interviews right in the middle of camp, but we appreciate you, man.

26:52Appreciate it. I told Kenny Sims the same thing. what I love about this sport is that no matter what's said, no matter how the camps feel about each other, the fighters feel about each other, you guys have a date and it's going to be settled. Somebody's going to be right and somebody's going to be wrong. And your date is March 14th, brother. We can't wait to watch it. Thank you for coming on the Hall of Game. Andre, appreciate you. Thank you. Peace out, bro.

27:32This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.