Jeff Sims - from Frank Bruno. Eye of the Tiger

[wouter]

Eye of the Tiger, p. 52-54.

Soon after George and I had started working together Greg Page pulled out of our scheduled fight at Wembley on 24 March 1987, with a cut eye and James ‘Quick’Tillis was called in as a substitute. Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma, whose chief claim to fame was that he had been the first opponent to take Tyson the distance. During my ten-day stay at Grossinger’s training camp in 1983 I lodged in a log cabin alongside one that was occupied by Tillis and an unforgettable character called Jeff Sims. We used to spar together every day, and the two American heavyweights just did not know what to make of me. I was the same size, the same colour but I talked with what to them was a strange accent. Every day we would all have lunch together at a large table in the communal kitchen, and I was aware that both Tillis and Sims were giving me some strange looks during my first couple of days at the training camp. Since my Oak Hall days I had always prided myself on my manners and made a point of saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. My politeness obviously had an unsettling effect on Sims, who took Terry Lawless on one side and said: ‘This guy Bruno, is he a faggot?’
Terry laughed out loud and replied: ‘He’s about as big a poof as Sylvester Stallone.’
That helped them accept me and for the rest of the stay they treated me with more respect, particularly as I gave better than I got in our tough sparring sessions. Tillis, who always wore a ten-gallon cowboy’s hat outside the ring, was a strong, upright boxer whose style was not unlike my own. But Sims was unconventional and a law unto himself. I never tire of telling the following story on Sims, who remains one of the most incredible people I have ever met.
I knew that he was something different from the first minute of our opening sparring session. I dropped him on the seat of his pants with the first right hand that I threw. He sat on the canvas and said in a deep drawl: ‘S-h-e-e-t. That chain gang done slowed me down more than I thought.’
Later on over dinner I asked him what he meant about the chain gang. It turned out he had four bullets still wedged in him from two shooting incidents plus scars from forty stitches following knife fights. He had served seven years in jail – most of them on a chain gang - for shooting dead a man who had previously shot him. Sims had never known his father and from the age of seven had travelled the South with his mother and ten brothers and sisters, all of them working for a sharecropping gang. He started boxing while in jail and became prison champion of the State of Florida. It was boxing that got him remission from a fifteen-year sentence, and he turned professional on his release and won his first nineteen fights by knockout and was ranked number eleven in the world ratings.
This was how twenty-nine-year-old Sims, talking in a Deep South drawl, described how he lost his place as a title contender: ‘I’d got myself noticed and, man, I was living high on self-respect for the first time in my life. Then my manager goes and matches me with another young world title contender. To save on expenses, the manager got both of us to live together while training. I ain’t kidding you man. The most important fight of my life and I’m having to sleep in the same room as my opponent. S-h-e-e-t, man, it was like putting a lion and a tiger in the same cage, and sure enough we were soon at each other’s throats.
‘Anyways, one night we got to arguing over who should do the dishes and who should shift the garbage. We start to fight and the next thing I knows he’s pulled a gun and is pointing it right at me. As I dived for my life he shot six times and I got hit by three of the bullets – in the shoulder, the ribs and the thigh. As I lay on the floor I heard him re-loading and I thought, s-h-e-e-t, the son of a bitch is gonna finish me off. I dragged myself up and jumped two storeys out of the window. When I got outta hospital three weeks later I still had them slugs buried in me, plus another from when I got shot years earlier.’
I decided not to tell him the story of my days growing up in Wandsworth and going to Oak Hall because it might have convinced him that I really was a faggot!
Late one night during our second week at the camp we had one of the worst storms I’ve ever known in my life. Lightning hit a tree right outside our window and set it on fire, and a power cut plunged the entire camp into darkness. It rained so hard I thought we were all going to get washed away down to the foot of the Catskills. When the rain stopped I followed Terry on a stumbling journey through the pitch-black grounds to our cabin. It was really frightening, I can tell you. As I passed Jeff’s cabin I noticed that his door was wide open. I peered into the darkened cabin and found him lying stark naked on his bunk, staring dreamily into space as if he didn’t have a care in the world. ‘Ain’t you scared being in there on your own, Jeff?’ I asked, only half joking.
He didn’t blink an eyelid as he replied: ‘It don’t worry me none, man. I done used to solitary.’
There was a definite unhinged side to Sims, who had a favourite word that he kept using. At first I thought it was four words. It sounded like ‘wreck a car ration’. It then dawned on me that it was one word, recreation. In the middle of one night he came banging on the door of my log cabin shouting: ‘Come out Bruno, you no-good Limey. It’s time for our showdown. Let’s get it on right here and now.’
I ignored him but was really angry to have my sleep interrupted. I gave him a right earful of choice Wandsworth street language the next moring and he found out that there were times when I could forget to be polite. He put two big arms around me and hugged me.’S-h-e-e-t, man,’ he said, ‘I was only having a little rec-a-re-ation.’
I wondered what the Fleet Street reporters would have made of him if he had been my substitute opponent instead of James Tillis (…)

[overhand_right]

Eye of the Tiger, p. 52-54.
My politeness obviously had an unsettling effect on Sims, who took Terry Lawless on one side and said: ‘This guy Bruno, is he a faggot?’

This line made me laugh out loud in the middle of my office. That is fookin HILARIOUS.

Those are some ATG anecdotes on Sims, all of it was left out of Bruno's most recent book?!

Hard to believe Sims has been dead 14 years now. I believe certain people on this forum knew him. What a pure legend! His stories are better than his actual fights!

[Expug]

Bruno fought here in Chicago in 1983.
He came to the gym I was working out at , a place called The u.s. Arena , it was at Division and Damen .
Its long gone.
On that day I was hitting the speed bag when Bruno came up and asked with perfect manners if he could borrow my speed bag.
The guy was classy , a gentleman , and believe me it was not common in that gym.
I was amazed as at that time I didnt know who he was.
Shortly after that he sparred in the ring and more than held his own against you guessed it ..Tillis.

[overhand_right]

Great story expug. How did Americans regard Bruno? as most Brits do not think much of his skills.

Did you witness his 2 rd blugeoning of Mike Jameson in Chicago?

[Expug]

When he came to the gym I dont think any of the other fighters knew much about him as it was early in his career.
The place he fought at was a dump in a lousy neighborhood called Divinci manor and he recieved no press whatsoever.
The kicker is , Barry Mcguigan also fought on that card Im quite sure.
I didnt see that card .
Had I known what was in store for those two I would have checked it out.
That Venue is gone now.
It was at North and Austin, Seamus will remember it, and it only seated a few hundred.

[dr_devious]

Can someone regale us about the Jeff Simms anecdotes?