BoztheMadman Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Travis Simms seemed to have all the gifts needed to become a true boxing star. For a while, he was on the right path. But, then something happened that would set his career back. He became a victim of boxing politics when he was pushed aside in favor of a bigger star: Shane Mosley. This led to him being away from the ring for 2 years and cut his time on top short, as he would soon lose his prime after returning. Nicknamed "Tremendous", he could box and punch and was a rather aggressive fighter who was tough and game and was never stopped in his 29 pro fights. Here is the story of Travis Simms-the wronged champion. He was born 1 May 1971 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and his twin brother Tarvis was also a professional boxer, who had some success as amateur, but never achieved what his brother did as a pro. Travis stands 5'9 1/2 or 177 cm and has a reach of 69 inches or 175 cm. After a stellar amateur career, he turned pro at the age of 26 in February 1998. He fought as a middleweight first and went 20-0 with 14 ko's, before going down to light middleweight, where he would make his mark. In his second fight there, which was for the NABA title, he beat Anton Robinson by TKO7. The day after, he went to the bank to collect his pay, when he was informed that the account it was drawn against-that of his promoter- was empty. But that was just a small episode compared to what lay ahead. He got to fight for the WBA title, held by hard-hitting Alejandro Garcia, who was 22-0 and all his wins were by ko. Simms hadn't fought for 13 months when they fought on 13 December 2003, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. He was ahead on two of the scorecards going into the 5th, while the third was even. After a clinch was broken up by the referee, Garcia stood there with his guard lowered for a moment and Simms took advantage of it and hit him with a brutal left hook which put him down and out. He made his first defense against the former IBF-champion Bronco McKart 2 October 2004 at MSG, on the same card as the Felix Trinidad-Ricardo Mayorga fight. Simms won by the wide scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110. However, before that fight happened, Shane Mosley, the super champion of WBA, was supposed to fight the regular champion Simms, but after fighting Winky Wright in a unification fight in March 2004 and then losing to him, he refused to fight Simms and instead signed for a rematch with Wright. By WBA rules, there are no rematches in super championship fights, but Mosley still got away with it and fought Wright again. Simms then sued WBA for not enforcing his mandatory fight against Mosley and was then stripped. He had previously agreed with Mosley to let him fight Wright first and then he was supposed to get his chance, but never did, which made everything so unfair on Simms' part. WBA not only did not pay a compensation fee to Simms for letting Mosley fight Wright again, they also made Alejandro Garcia his mandatory, despite Simms already knocking him out, and officially stripped him when he refused to fight him. After Garcia again became the champion, Simms wasn't offered a fight and therefore had to wait until Garcia had lost the title to Jose Antonio Rivera, who finally offered Simms a fight. All this had kept Simms out of the ring for over 2 years, but at his comeback he still looked good. It happened on 6 January 2007 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood and Simms dominated the fight before sending Rivera down in round 9 with a series of lefts and then stopping him on his feet. He had also scored a knockdown in round 2 previously and was given all of the first 8 rounds by two of the judges. Just as it seemed he was back and destined to take over the division after Mosley had gone back to 147 and Wright up to 160, he lost for the first and only time in his career. It was against Joachim Alcine, a 28-0 Haitian-Canadian contender, who was 1 1/2 inch taller and with a 4-inch reach advantage. The fight happened in Simms' home state of Connecticut, at Harbour Yard Arena in Bridgeport, 7 July 2007. Alcine was also almost 5 years younger and was a good technical boxer. The fight was even at first, but in the sixth round Simms was taken a point away and after that seemed to lose some of his steam. Alcine began to overwhelm him with activity and then in the ninth he put Simms down for the first time in Simms' career. Simms tried to mount a comeback but in the end he lost by the scores of 111-114, 110-115 and 109-116, losing two points extra. It was the end of Travis Simms as a true contender and though he came back next year, he only had 3 more easy fights, the last one in 2014, before retiring at the age of 43 and with a record of 28 wins, 19 by ko and 1 loss. After retirement he went into politics and is now a Democratic member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he represents the 140th Assembly District. He has had brushes with the law however and in 2012 was arrested after refusing to leave a large disturbance involving the widow of his adopted brother. He was found not guilty. Also, on 20 October 2014, 4 months after his last fight, he was arrested after reporting a gun stolen. The reason? It had 12 rounds instead of the allowed 10, according to the Connecticut law. Travis Simms was a fine fighter but he started his pro career somewhat late and the controversy involving Mosley put a serious dent in his career. His case is rather unique, since very few world champions have been treated like that. He was simply unfortunate to be a champion in the same organization as such a big star. I hope you enjoyed this presentation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonRingRules Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 - -Had no idea Trav fought until age 43, nor the boxing politics. Werent the Simms twins adopted off the street as young boys. At any rate, State Leg a good place to land after being royally screwed over by dirty boxing politics . Well done my man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoztheMadman Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 - -Had no idea Trav fought until age 43, nor the boxing politics. Werent the Simms twins adopted off the street as young boys. At any rate, State Leg a good place to land after being royally screwed over by dirty boxing politics . Well done my man! Have no idea. Were they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Isnt't that the Peterson brothers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoztheMadman Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Isnt't that the Peterson brothers? I think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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