Cruiserweight controversy in Sacramento as Simms-Davis ends in draw
Mark Ortega
UltimateBoxingResults.com
August 7, 2009
Last night at the Red Lion Hotel in Sacramento, California, fans that showed up to appreciate a night of boxing featuring some local talent got a two-for-one deal as they were able to witness a live circus following the bizarre ending to the night’s main event featuring Sacramento’s Michael Simms and Reno, Nevada’s Kelvin Davis in a cruiserweight fight that was scheduled for eight rounds by all accounts but managed to only go six before the fight was scored a draw. More on that later on.
At stake was a shot at Matt Godfrey and his NABF title at the Red Lion in September, a good-sized payday for both Simms and Davis at this stage of their career. Davis , by all accounts, was a shot fighter who many were just hoping would not be hurt badly coming off an abysmal performance against a 5-8-1 fighter by the name of Leo Bercier in January of this year at the same venue. In that fight, Davis looked like a spent fighter with no balance as he was dropped by the inexperienced Bercier en route to a unanimous decision loss. Davis and his brother Kelly, who is also his trainer and manager, mostly blame his recent work on the fact that all of his fights have generally been on short notice.
“Kelvin always gets fights on a two-day notice, three-day notice,” said Kelly. “He never gets sparring. He finally had time to prepare, five or six weeks to prepare for the fight. It was a great fight, he was working the body and he looked great.”
Davis did work the body very well to start the fight and took the first few rounds on his higher work rate. In the second round, Simms failed to throw a punch for a full minute to close the round while Davis tried to get inside his reach. The third round was much closer as Simms started to let his hands go a bit and they began to trade inside. Davis had a good fourth round and was taking Simms’ clubbing overhand rights with no problem and was not shaken by them at all.
Then, things changed in the fifth round. Simms began to pour it on a bit more to the confusion of Davis ’ corner. Davis and his team decided to try and weather the storm and get Simms out of there when he was tired. The sixth round saw Simms pretty much go for broke while Davis did his best to keep him off of himself and land some heavy shots of his own. At the end of the sixth round is where things got bizarre.
Nobody knew what was going on. The ring card girl began to get ready to carry a “7” around the ring. In the meantime, Simms was having his gloves cut off and at the same time Davis was getting prepped for the seventh round.. Then all hell broke loose as the ring announcer climbed into the ring with a confused look on his face and was then told by the commission that this was a six-round bout. The bout had been announced as an eight round main event just moments before the opening bell, the bout sheet had it listed as eight, by all accounts this was an eight round fight.
Instead, scores were read 58-56 for Simms, 58-56 for Davis , and 57-57 even, a draw. Davis and his team had no clue that this was a six round fight.
“At the end of the sixth round. I thought I had two more rounds,” said Kelvin Davis. “That’s what my contract said. We signed the contract for an eight round fight. We trained for eight and we expected eight. My contract says eight round fight. That’s we trained for. That’s what I was sparring twelve rounds for, running five miles for.”
When asked when he found out about the change, Michael Simms responded, “Probably about ten minutes before the fight. I signed a contract for eight rounds and back here I was getting ready and they told me at the last second, like ten minutes before, that it was a six-rounder. I trained for an eight-round fight.”
“They told him, but they didn’t tell us because he is the hometown favorite,” exclaimed Kelly Davis.. “They told him in the locker room, they didn’t say anything to us.”
When asked if he signed anything different since signing the original contract, Simms responded, “No. I signed the contract before and that was it..”
It is common knowledge that anytime a fight’s variables are changed from the original contract, a new contract must be issued and signed by both participants. Apparently, this didn’t happen on either side of things. The California State Athletic Commission is claiming that this fight was always a six-round fight. The card’s promoter, Nasser Niavaroni, is saying that the fight was changed the six when the commission voiced their concerns over Davis ’ health.
“They felt because of his age and he has had a lot of losses. The California State Commission was concerned with his ability to speak. I tried to explain to them that this guy may not be a great speaker, but he can still fight. So that was their concern and they said they would only do a six,” said Niavoroni.
“Simms has lost quite a few fights as well,” continued Niavaroni. “So I don’t think that was their concern. The match-up I thought it was good, so I wasn’t going to try and talk anybody into anything. I thought it was a good match-up and you saw a pretty good and fair fight. It wasn’t a one-way fight. That is the way I felt about it and I convinced them that was the way it was going to be and it turned out to be that way.”
If the fight were changed to six rounds as much as a few days before the fight, why wasn’t anyone made aware of this? No member of the press or anyone ringside seemed to have any clue except for Simms and his corner, and that is only because they were told moments before the fight. Obviously this changes how you may pace yourself over the course of a fight if one guy thinks its going six rounds and the other fighter thinks its going eight.
There was also speculation that the change was made at the weigh-in, to which Kelly Davis responded, “They didn’t say anything. You have to sign for that. We didn’t sign for that and we wouldn’t have agreed to that. That is a false lie.”
Kelly Davis was so heated over the situation that he wanted the contract that he supposedly signed that made this fight a six-rounder to be produced in front of his eyes. It took nearly twenty minutes before this was able to happen, with many members of the state athletic commission giving him the runaround while at the same time shielding themselves from any blame that may be cast upon them.
Once a contract was finally produced, things got even more interesting. With my own eyes I saw a contract that had “8” listed as the rounds. But there was a line drawn through the “8” and a “6” was written in next to it. There were no initials next to it nor was there a date signifying a change. Regardless, if the change were made a new contract would have to be drawn up.
“They have a contract where Kelvin signed for an eight-rounder,” says Kelly Davis. “Someone crossed out the eight and wrote a six in the corner. They wrote it in.”
“If they are going to do us like that, that is totally wrong,” continued Kelly. “The cards were going to be stacked against us and I told him that. But I thought at least the commission would keep it all fair. Damn everybody else against us, the promoter or the owner of the hotel, damn all that. At least the commission is supposed to be the guiding light to keep it all solid. I want the commission to take this fight completely off his record.”
No one can argue that Davis would have paced himself much differently if he knew it was a six round fight.
“I was going to change my strategy in the next round.. In the seventh round I was going to knock him out,” said Kelvin.. “I thought I’ve got to put everything I had into every punch, because he was boxing away. In the seventh and eighth round I was going to turn it on and they stopped it. If I would have known it was a sixth round fight his ass would have been on the ground.”
What is being overshadowed by all of this controversy is the fact that before this fight many had written off Davis as a shot fighter who needed to quit fighting. Even Davis ’ opponent was of that opinion.
“Otis Griffin and I watched his last fight and we both said that if we ever fought him we wouldn’t knock him out because he seemed punchy. It would be like we were taking advantage of a five-year-old kid or something. But when the punches start flying you have to look past that,” said Simms boldly.
Once the fight began Simms changed his tune. “He kind of zones out a little bit, but physically he is still strong. He’s got talent when he lets his hands go. When we stood toe-to-toe, I could still feel his power, but I take a good shot and I have got good defense.”
I believe that Kelvin Davis has earned the right to continue fighting these kinds of fights without any interference from a state commission or anybody else.
“I want to show that the California State Commission that this guy is still capable,” concluded Niavaroni. “They had him all washed up and they were going to stop him from fighting. Thank God they didn’t because he did a pretty good job, I thought.”
UNDERCARD RESULTS
In the co-featured bout, the undefeated James Parison [12-0, 3 KOs ] of San Diego , California won an easy unanimous decision over the game but outclassed Christian Cruz [ 12-10-1 , 10 KOs ] of Sacramento , California in a light heavyweight bout by scores of 60-54 courtesy of all three judges. Parison was just too quick and too smart for Cruz, who landed a big shot every now and then but was never able to stagger his opponent. Cruz was coming off of a long sixteen-month layoff. Parison was scheduled to fight undefeated Sacramento prospect Brandon Gonzales on this card on an earlier date but Gonzales pulled out with an injury. That bout was slated to be for the WBC USNBC title.
Vacaville welterweight prospect Geraldo Lopez [3-0, 2 KOs ] remained undefeated in knocking out Angel Martinez [0-1] in the first round with a perfect one-two combination that would drop Martinez . Martinez would try and get to his feet but would fall down again before the referee waved the bout off. Official time was 1:32 in the first round.
In a battle of two light heavyweight trial-horses, Sacramento native Ernesto Castaneda [ 11-7-1 , 4 KOs ] won an uneven six-round unanimous decision over Ayodeji Fadeyi [ 10-7-1 , 6 KOs ] by scores of 60-54 twice and 59-55 once. Castaneda outworked his opponent and was able to do a lot of early body work that would slow down his opponent on the way to the decision win.
In the opening bout of the night, Maximilliano Becerra [2-0-1, KO] remained undefeated by knocking out Victor Cortez [0-1] in the second round of a scheduled four-round lightweight bout. Becerra dropped an off-balance Cortez with seconds left in the first round with a good right hand. In the second, Becerra landed a right-left-right combination that finished his opponent. Official time of the stoppage was 2:19 in the second round.
The night’s action was promoted by Uppercut Promotions and held at the Red Lion Hotel. The next card at the Red Lion Hotel will take place September 12th and will seat 1,000 in the outdoor part of the hotel. The main event will be Matt Godfrey against Michael Simms for the NABF cruiserweight title.
