Nearly one year ago Allan Green was featured by Showtime in what many considered a “bullpen” type of fight, before Green was asked to enter the Super Six Tournament. Green’s opponent that night, Tarvis Simms was brought in on short notice, and expected to play the role of a tune up. Simms had other plans.
“I proved I can compete with anyone that night. I went into his promoter’s show, in his backyard, and I thought I won the fight” Simms said of his performance that night.
Scorecards aside (Green won a decision), Simms looked impressive, especially considering the situation he was up against. Given his performance that night one would have imagined Simms would be poised for another opportunity in the coming months. That assumption would prove to be deadly inaccurate. Simms is approaching 12 months of inactivity and he insists that has not been by choice.
“Believe me it has nothing to do with me. I’m ready able and willing to get in there and fight the best of them”
Simms says that his promotion has dropped him by the wayside, while he remains in top notch form, and is physically and mentally prepared for a premiere fight. While a rematch with Green doesn’t seem to be written in the stars Simms has said he would have liked to have done battle with a fighter like Kelly Pavlik.
“We wanted Green again but they didn’t want to entertain the idea. I’d like to fight Pavlik, I think the fans would love it, I do well with bigger fighters” the Connecticut native said.
Tarvis also told me a story of a fight being presented to him with a purse offer intact, Tarvis referred the offer to his management, who later suspiciously presented it back to him with a smaller purse attached. It’s no secret that boxing is home to some ill practices behind the scene, but Tarvis seems to be a case that simply cannot catch a break. With Green remaining his only loss, Simms holds impressive wins over Marcus Upshaw and Carl Daniels, but can’t seem to get the attention of fighters at the next level.
Simms’ situation seems to be another example of boxing’s all too familiar dark side. After putting forth an impressive effort in October of last year, perhaps he drove opportunities away by proving to be a riskier opponent. Either way, his performance has not been rewarded and Simms has been stung by the business of boxing.
While talking with Tarvis Simms I got the impression that he is sincere in his message to the boxing community, that he is ready to fight anyone at any time or place. If you said boxing was struggling, you may be right, you may be wrong, but you wouldn’t be the first. You could search for flaws within the game all day long, but Tarvis Simms is not one of them. If there were more fighters like Tarvis Simms there would be fewer fights that should have but didn’t happen. While Tarvis Simms current situation is difficult to understand, for anyone familiar with him, he is not difficult to root for.
