Tony Sims has supported his fighter, Conor Benn, in the aftermath of his decision victory over Regis Prograis.
The 29-year-old Benn is now 25-1 (14 KOs) and remains the No. 1 contender for Ryan Garcia’s WBC title at 147lbs - the bout against Prograis, 30-4 (24 KOs), was set for 150lbs.
Even so, Benn was widely criticized for his performance against American veteran Prograis, who announced his retirement following the fight.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, he should have knocked him out,’” Sims said to BoxingScene.
“And, you know, ‘it weren't a great performance for him’ and ‘Prograis was injured.’ Like, there's always something the matter with the opponent. Like, ‘Eubank was injured and he was injured.’ You know what I mean? But you flip it over to what we got. We got six weeks’ notice for this fight, right? That’s all we had, six weeks. Got Prograis just chucked at us. That was the fight. There was the date, six weeks to go. Got to get the weight off and fight a southpaw, who by the way, is a good southpaw as well. Tricky, counter-punching southpaw. Been two times world champion, never been stopped. And we’ve got six weeks to get ready. And Conor’s only ever fought one southpaw before in Chris van Heerden and that was like four years ago. The only bit of southpaw sparring he’s ever done was for that fight.
“I knew it was always going to be a tricky fight. It was a fight I would never have picked in a million years. But considering the time he [Benn] had, the timescale he had to get the weight off and fight a southpaw, I think he done really well. I did. And I felt, once he started his body punching, which I wanted him to do earlier in the fight, I thought he was getting to him. But aside from the head clashes with the cuts, I think he won really, really comfortable and clearly, really.”
Post-fight, Benn’s former promoter Eddie Hearn contended that Benn might be more effective at 160lbs, where he fought Eubank Jnr twice. But Sims said Benn, who weighed 149 1/2lbs for Prograis, is on his way down in weight.
“It’s going to be [Ryan] Garcia next, isn’t [it]? He's mandatory for that title. I don’t think Garcia can get out of it unless he vacates. So that’s his next fight, at 147. He made 149 in six weeks so he’s going to have plenty of time to take another two pounds off. So I think he’s going to be fine at that weight. But it’s just like you get short notice fights flopped on you and you’re trying to obviously get down to the weight and a southpaw chucked at you at the same time.
“It was a tricky fight. It was like a banana skin fight, really, knowing that you’re mandatory for the WBC as well. But he won it clearly. But like you say, he’s always going to get criticism. And if you look at people saying, ‘Oh, he ain’t knocked no one out in four fights’ well, hold it a minute. He’s fought a middleweight twice who, by the way, he had on the floor twice, and then the other two fights was both at super welterweight, which is out of his weight category as well, and he hurt both of them fighters in both them fighters. So we’ll see. He hurt Pograis in the first round as well. But listen, Pograis is experienced.”
Asked whether the fight was a “no-win” for Benn, in that if he blasted Prograis out, he would have defeated an aging champion who was injured, Sims replied: “Exactly. You know, and these excuses come out after fights. It’s the same with Eubank. ‘Oh, he was weight drained. He was ill. He was injured.’ But who says Conor Benn wasn’t weight drained and we only had short notice for a southpaw? No one says that. But I was actually pleased. I was pleased because I feel like he boxed him in the first half of the fight and then he stuck it on him in the last half of the fight. He’s not easy to catch clean, Prograis. You catch him in one shot and then he slips and slides the rest of them. He knows what he’s doing. So it was always going to be a tricky fight. I never once ever said that Conor Benn was going to knock him out, ever, for any interview. I knew it was going to be a tricky fight. Why would Conor Benn knock him out and not Josh Taylor or Jack Catterall? Do you get what I mean? I don't get why people are expecting him to do that.”
Benn is now being spoken about as an opponent for Garcia, of course, but also the likes of Shakur Stevenson as all eyes move to the future.
But Benn’s fight with Prograis heralded his first away from Matchroom Boxing. He signed to fight for Zuffa, while still training with Sims out of the Matchroom gym. That, Sims, says, is none of his business and he has stuck to the task at hand of simply coaching the 29-year-old.
“It’s nothing to do with me, none of that, is it?” said Sims. “I was just training him. “Like I trained the other fighters. So whoever they’re with, Matchroom or Frank Warren or anything, I just trained them. I ain’t got involved in none of it. I never got involved, do you know what I mean? Never got involved one bit. I didn’t even know what was happening to each side. I’m just a trainer and that’s it.”
Sims has now gone on vacation and will return hoping to have dates locked in for his heavyweight Johnny Fisher and light-heavyweight contender Craig Richards. They are training, in the meantime, with Sims’ assistant, former contender John Ryder.
Sims has also recently guided British and Commonwealth middleweight champion George Liddard to a successful defense of his titles against Tyler Denny.
