Steve "Sammy" Sims (born 10 October 1958) is a Welsh former professional boxer. He held the British

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

title in 1982, the Welsh Area super-featherweight title from 1985 to 1986 and challenged once for the

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

featherweight title in 1983.

Career

Sims made his professional debut in June 1979, defeating Selvin Bell in a

points decision A points decision is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. Unlike normal decisions where there are three judges that agree on whic ...

(PTS). He suffered his first loss in his following fight, a fifth-round

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO) to Erig Roganesi. Sims fought frequently in his early career, fighting 14 times by November 1980, recording a 7–7 record. During this spell, he defeated future British

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

title holder Davy Larmour and suffered a defeat to another future bantamweight champion, John Feeney. Following defeat to Feeney, Sims embarked on the longest unbeaten run of his career. He recorded a draw with Vernon Penprase in December 1980 before defeating him in a rematch six months later. He fought

Jimmy Flint Jimmy 'The Wapping Assassin' Flint (born 6 November 1952) is an English actor, playwright and retired boxer. Early life Jimmy was born and brought up in Wapping, East London as the son of a docker. Jimmy started off his amateur boxing care ...

in October 1981. Flint entered the fight with a 27–2 record but suffered a

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(KO) defeat to Sims, who went on to record a third straight victory by defeating Belgian Jean-Marc Renard. When

Patrick Cowdell Patrick ("Pat") Cowdell (born 18 August 1953 in Smethwick, Staffordshire) is a retired boxer from Great Britain. He challenged twice for the WBC world featherweight title in 1981 and 1985. Amateur career Cowdell won the bronze medal in the ...

vacated his British

title in 1982, Sims was offered a fight against Terry McKeown for the vacant belt. The pair met in September 1982 in St. Andrew's Sporting Club. Sims knocked McKeown down in the 12th round, with his opponent falling out of the ring. The referee began a ten count against McKeown who reentered the ring on one knee as the referee reached ten, leading to Sims being declared the winner. McKeown unsuccessfully protested the call as Sims became the first Welshman to win the title since

Howard Winstone Howard Winstone, MBE (15 April 1939 – 30 September 2000) was a Welsh world champion boxer, born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. As an amateur, Winstone won the Amateur Boxing Association bantamweight title in 1958, and a Commonwealth Games Gold Med ...

in 1966. Following his victory, Sims was set to face Barry McGuigan in his first title defence, being set to receive £7,000 for the bout. However, the temporary retirement of Cowdell resulted in Sims being nominated to face undefeated Italian

Loris Stecca Loris Stecca (born March 30, 1960) is an Italian former world champion boxer. His brother Maurizio is also a former boxer and held the WBO world Featherweight title shortly during the late 1990s. Professional career Stecca held the WBA super ...

for the vacant

featherweight title. Sims ultimately chose to vacate his British title to take the fight against Stecca. Part of Sims' training regime for the fight involved running the 290 steps of the Newport Transporter Bridge, both up and down, ten times a day. Sims lost the fight to Stecca by TKO and went on to lose three of his next four fights. He moved up to super-featherweight in 1985 and defeated Steve Cleak for the Welsh Area title at his new weight. He also successfully defended the belt against Tony Borg. He unsuccessfully challenged

Robert Dickie Robert Dickie (23 June 1964 – 28 October 2010) was a Welsh professional boxer, fighting at both featherweight and super-featherweight. He was Scottish champion at featherweight, British champion at both weights and became WBC International su ...

for the British featherweight title in 1986 and fought in two more bouts before retiring.

Later life

After retiring from fighting, Sims opened Ringland Boxing Club in his hometown of Newport. He also set up Sammy's Community Hub in Alway. A documentary of his community work, entitled ''Boxing in the Blood'', was premiered in his hometown in 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Steve 1958 births Living people Welsh male boxers Sportspeople from Newport, Wales Featherweight boxers Super-featherweight boxers

Career

Later life

See also

References