Issue 021
January 2007
Interviewed by Jim Burman
Wes Sims is one of those fighters whose character will help drive the sport well into the mainstream. First coming to prominence in his UFC debut with Frank Mir (which ended with him powering out of an arm bar attempt and then stomping Mir for the disqualification) Wes would go on to claim that he had been eye gouged and merely retaliated. In the rematch he famously signaled that he was ok during a choke attempt by giving the finger (indirectly) to Mir. At 6' 9" you'd think that his appearance alone would make a lasting impression and then you talk to him... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Wes' World.
Wes recalls how he got into fighting by accident: "My doctor was Mark Coleman's doctor, I wanted to be a pro wrestler and he hooked me up with him. Coleman convinced him that there wasn't much prospect in becoming a wrestler but didn't close the door on him. "I decided I'd try my hand at fighting. Every time we trained, I'd train as hard as I possibly could, show him my heart and he kept me in."
Wes has seen his fair share of controversy in fighting, on more than one occasion claiming foul play by his opponent. When asked on his opinion he's straight talking. "Everybody's scared to lose to me, that's what it boils down to. They'll resort to cheating and it's not only the high profile fights, it's everybody. I just fought in Mexico, this complete ass wipe, he gouged me in the eyes in the first round, he head butted me and I think he hit me in the face with 'Icy hot' on his glove, my eyes were burning, I couldn't see."
When I researched Sims for this article I was genuinely surprised at how much he's fought. So what's motivating him to keep going so much? Is it the money? The fame? The Chicks? "It's EVERYTHING! It's the money, the fame, plus I'm Wes Sims for god’s sake, it's in my blood,” he says.
Recently defeating another UFC vet in convicted drug cheat Kimo Leopoldo, Wes was rumoured to have suffered some side effects after the fight event though he ended it pretty quickly in the first round. "It was the most incredible thing that I have ever experienced. After the fight I remember walking down the isle to the back and everything just went fuzzy. After about 4 days had passed I was told that I was in like a drug-induced coma. It had to be something that was in Kimo's blood - he bled all over me and something that he had in his blood got me so high that I experienced something out of this world. All I did was lay around and listen to Velvet Underground. I've tried to contact the Arizona Tea Company and different places to bottle this stuff and sell it. You wanna get high all you gotta do is dump Kimo's blood on you. It was incredible. Listen, if you're writing this for your magazine, please ask Kimo, I'd like to fight you again Kimo; you gave me just a taste. You can't do that, give me another fight! Bleed on me!”
Despite begging for rematches, Wes is also keen to promote his other business ventures ("I plan on being the first MMA trillionaire") so let me introduce:
The Mobile Dojo - "It's very hard to make Gym hours when I'm on the road, so y'know something? I'm training while I'm on the road. I've got someone up front driving my bus whilst I'm in the back doing rounds on the heavy bag or rolling with someone on the ground. I've got a school bus, ripped out the seats and I've created a mobile dojo. I plan on getting eight of them and putting eight superstars behind the wheel and putting some kind of thing on these so you can trace where we're at. We'll pull up to a neighbourhood near you and you can train with your favourite superstars."
The TFL - "The commissions are taking over each state and they're making a lot of demands like fighters need pretty close records in order to fight each other and guys with less than 500 records (more losses than wins) are getting pushed out. So I said 'Wes Sims, it's time for you to come to the rescue' so I decided to start the TFL - the Turd Fighting League, where you have to have a losing record. In the TFL you can experience the high of winning. We just had a four man tournament where a 'turd' who hadn't experienced victory picked up not just one win but two wins in one night, and y'know something? These guys fought like it was gonna be a life changing moment. It's really something to witness"
The MMA Yard Sale - "People are looking for memorabilia from the fights, the sports blowing up so I decided that I'm gonna bring my memorabilia – whether it's an autographed poster of Randy Couture or Chuck Liddell or my used sandals. I'm gonna go to an MMA show, set up a garage sale and put a price tag on everything that I've got. There's nothing that doesn't have a price tag on it - I'll sell the clothes right off of my back at the end of the night."
If any of those plans fail to make the fabled trillion dollars Wes has a back up plan. "I'll do it through my 37 minute instructional video that I'll put out - Secret Moves By Wes Sims"
Wes also has a serious and generous side to his personality and as you can guess by now isn't afraid to speak his mind. "I was informed that my services will never be needed by the World Fighter promotion (organization that signed Frank Shamrock earlier this year) which is fine. I've already fought for free this year (Ryan Bennett benefit show)... if there's a fund that I can donate some money to to get this guys wife (Jason Delio – promoter of World Fighter) off of his back or pay his child support - tell me where to send it."
When finally asked about the UK he's incredibly enthusiastic. "I would love to come over there and be like Snoop Dogg and get kicked out of the country. If Snoop Dogg can get kicked out then I'm sure Wes Sims can get kicked out."
