YOU could easily miss Tony Simsโ boxing gym. Tucked away down a quiet lane in the wooded Essex countryside, only the sound of a heavy bag groaning beneath the weight of punches identifies it.
Inside, two-weight world champion Ricky Burns, laced with sweat, batters the bag. Dominated by a large ring in the centre of the floor, gleaming new bags hang along the walls as well as conditioning equipment. Burns is soon up in the ring, shadow-boxing with a weighted vest and small dumbbells in his hands. There is a rhythm to life in a boxing gym. Sitting back in his office just off the gym floor, Sims explains, โIt starts early on a Monday. Fighters normally do two sessions a day here. Theyโll come in in the morning, theyโll do their running through the lanes, sprint work up the hills on Sundays, weโll just vary it in the mornings. Weโve set out a room next door, like a lounge [to rest], if they want to sleep they can sleep.โ
When Boxing News went to the gym, before John Ryder did a 12-round spar with Lee Markham, Kevin Mitchell reeled off 12 four-minute rounds with young prospect Ohara Davies. Davies went after him, heaving in long straight rights. In the break, Mitchell spoke quietly to Ohara, offering advice, though presumably it would only make the next round trickier for him. โIt helps,โ Kevin smiled. โIt makes it harder but when youโre sparring youโve got big gloves, a big headguard. And Iโm quite tough.
โI used to spar with Colin Lynes,โ Mitchell continued. โIโd always try to tear into him. Heโd tell me things. Over the years I realised he was trying to help me and guide me through things. As you get older you do it yourself.โ
After their spar, Mitchell and Davies do strength work on the TRX device, and an assortment of abdominal exercises before warming down.
For most of his stable, Sims handles all their boxing and strength and conditioning training. He works as their manager as well. โI like to be in control of who their opponents are going to be and financially what theyโre getting and when theyโre going to be fighting,โ he continued. โThatโs another side that comes after the gym. I go to the office, talk about opponents, talk about money, talk about shows theyโre going to go on next and then I go home, then I have my dinner and then I start watching opponents on DVDs.
โThe difficult part of it all [is] levelling it out so you spend a decent amount of time with each individual. Picture those boxers out there, theyโre not in a team. They want your individual attention every single one of them. Itโs very demanding sometimes. Kevin doesnโt think about what Ricky or Johnโs doing that day. He thinks what heโs doing and thatโs how a fighterโs got to think. Because he thinks that way he demands your 110 per cent attention, and so do all the others and I understand that and I want to give them that. Thatโs another reason why I wonโt overload my stable .โ
Now working exclusively with Matchroom fighters, Sims has come a long way since his early days as a coach. โWhen I started out training, I had a few club-fighters. Looking back I probably never thought I was going to be in a good position, because there were so many big promoters in those days and I was just chucking my fighters on little, tiny shows at the Elephant and Castle, just club shows, dinner shows, average fighters,โ he said.
โI learned a lot in those days, corner work. I was fortunate enough to do a bit of cut work with [legendary coach] Ernie Fossey,โ he continued. โSometimes I was in the changing room with [handler of journeymen] Nobby Nobbs because they were the calibre of fighters I had. I picked up a lot of good tips in those days. I worked in the changing rooms with Jimmy Tibbs, I worked alongside Jim McDonnell for a few years. You pick up a lot of experience along the way. Iโm probably now in the prime of my training.โ
Sims learned key lessons as he progressed. โBeing patient. Because I think patience has a lot to do with being a top coach. Youโve got to be patient with kids. You canโt expect kids to learn everything overnight. And also youโve got to have experience as well. Youโve got to know when to push a fighter and when to hold him back. Thatโs really important. Iโve found through working with a lot of different fighters over the years that the last week is really important. The week of the fight is important, when to push and when to hold back. Because you can overtrain fighters on the week of the fight,โ he said.
He feels his own work as a trainer is coming together now. โYou have to hit a level where, I think, your experience has to come in, where youโre still youthful and not when youโre too old. Thatโs the line youโve got to realise. You want the experience at my age now, not when youโre 80 or 90. Then I can be really experienced but I can be too old to do anything with a fighter physically. I think now Iโm probably in the prime of my life. Physically Iโm in good shape, mentally Iโm in good shape and Iโve got a lot of experience. Iโm hoping to develop my fighters and try to snare a couple more world champions along the way in the next five or six years, which is what all trainers are trying to do, every single one of us.”
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