WBA junior middleweight champion "Tremendous" Travis Simms, who will defend his world title Saturday night at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Connecticut, showed up for Thursday’s press conference looking every bit as sharp as a corporate executive.
In contrast, his mandatory challenger, undefeated Joachim Alcine, showed up in a jumpsuit. Simms also believes he’ll look sharper in the ring when he and Alcine put their boxing skills on display in the first world title fight in Bridgeport in more than a half century.
Simms, unbeaten at 25-0 with 19 KOs, wants to get Alcine out of the way and move on to the bigger names to prove his claim that he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. His ultimate goal however, goes beyond wanting to be on the top of everyone’s current pound-for-pound lists.
"I want to be one of the best junior middleweight champions in history and that’s my focus," said Simms. He’s ready to face the rest of the division’s belt holders to determine the true king of the 154-pound class. Simms mentioned that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. recently vacated the WBC junior middleweight strap he won from Oscar de la Hoya two months ago to move back down to welterweight – where he is the legitimate world champion thanks to a win over Carlos Baldomir- and rumor has it the July 28 fight between former Baldomir and Vernon Forrest will be for Mayweather’s vacated championship.
Simms said he would love to fight the winner of Forrest-Baldomir as well as unify against his IBF counterpart, Cory Spinks. Alcine thinks Simms better focus on his bout Saturday night and not look ahead to unification matches. Doing his best imitation of a preacher, Alcine approached the podium, held out his arm, looked towards the windows 30 feet in front of him and belted out, "I see the light. The light is shining there. The light belongs to me!"
He added, "The light was far but now it’s getting closer. The champ is here. The real champion is here."
Some time later, Sandra Stokes-Simms, the wife and manager of Travis, told Alcine: "After this fight you should go into comedy because you’re really, really funny."
Byron Oglesby, one of Travis’ trainers, showed he also might have a future in stand-up comedy when he told the crowd the only light Alcine saw "was a train coming."
Howard Grant, Alcine’s trainer, wished Simms luck for Saturday night, which prompted a smirk from the WBA junior middleweight champion.
Simms-Alcine is one of three world championship fights taking place at The Arena at Harbor Road, a short drive from Simms’ hometown of Norwalk. Undefeated Aussie knockout powerhouse Vic "Raging Bull" Darchinyan (28-0, 22 KOs), will defend his IBF flyweight championship against once-beaten Filipino Nonito "Flash" Donaire (17-1, 10 KOs) and a non-televised third world championship battle will pit former IBF super flyweight champion Luis "El Demoledor" Perez (24-1, 15 KOs), of Managua, Nicaragua, against Genaro "Poblanito" Garcia (35-5, 20 KOs) for the vacant IBF bantamweight title. Simms-Alcine and Darchinyan-Donaire will be televised on Showtime (9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast).
Tickets are on sale at Arena at Harbor Yard box office (Information Line: 203-345-2400), all Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com or by charging by phone at (203) 368-1000, (203) 624-0033, (860) 525-4500 or (203) 744-8100.
AA
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