Greg Leon: Congrats on recently signing with Dmitriy Salita and Salita Promotions. How did this come about? How did you guys link up?  Robert Simms: "We had kind of a good relationship because me and his other fighter Jermaine Franklin train together, so I would always see him at the gym and having more fights on the Detroit scene and I've always been around him for a while and he would always tell me that if I got to cruiserweight he would sign me. He wouldn't mess with me as a heavyweight, so the day I reached 200 pounds, I called him and he signed me and that was that. It happened exactly like that. I fought on June 22nd against a guy who was undefeated and I beat him and then I went back to my friend Jermaine Franklin's camp down in Atlanta where he was at and I got the weight off."

 

GL: When can we expect your Salita debut to take place?

 

RS: "I hoping the Claressa Shields card in Flint. I would love to debut on there and put on a show. A lot of the fans in Detroit know how I do. I'm flamboyant with the outfits and I'm a character. I'm cool and collected outside the ring, but in the ring I have fun. I put the work in outside of the ring to have fun when it's time to fight for real."

 

GL: At 35 years old how quickly do you need to be moved?

 

RS: "Pretty quickly. I'm not going to be one of those fighters who needs to get like 20 or 25 fights under their belt before they challenge for a world title. I've been in there with some of the top guys out there at heavyweight already. With Usyk and Gassiev leaving the division I think cruiserweight is wide open. I think Tabiti is the best American right now and there's some guys overseas, but in like five or six fights I should be ready to challenge anybody."

 

GL: All three of your losses have come by decision and none of them have been unanimous. In your minds eye, are you still an undefeated fighter?

 

RS: "Yes. If you could read into, but those fights were wins for me. The George Arias fight, I don't know if you've seen that fight, but nobody has been able to stop George Arias from walking them down except for me, I controlled him in that fight, I walked him down and had him bloodied. Craig Lewis was probably one of my easiest fights, I had that one 5-1 for me and the only reason I gave him that one is because I kind of took off the last round in that fight. I didn't have that a close fight, and the fight with the kid from Russia who is with Salita Promotions, he dropped me in the first round, but other than that I feel like I won all the rounds. I didn't get a warmup backstage for that fight, I thought I was going fourth or fifth and I wound up coming out second, I got dropped in the first one because I was cold, but then I was in control. If you look to his Youtube page you'll see that they have all his fights up there except mine, they only show the first round and nothing else."

 

GL: Are you concerned that your 9-3 record is going to make it difficult for you to get the guys I'm sure you'd like to fight?

 

RS: "I think they're view me as too dangerous or too risky for not enough reward, all I could do is fight into position. If people start making excuses not to fight me though that means I'm doing something right. My record is their built in excuse so all I could do is fight the fights and win."

 

GL: Where do you see yourself next year at this time?

 

RS: "With a continental America title or something like that, just climbing the rankings and fighting myself towards that world title. I look to be challenging for a world title late next year."

 

GL: Closing thoughts?

 

RS: "I'm happy I was able to take that weight off, I'm looking forward to working with Salita and doing whatever needs to be done to get that title around my waist. Just get ready for a show because when it comes to me I'm all about putting on a show for the fans, that's what I like to do. I'm going to get in there and have fun and take care of my business with a smile."