By Mark Vester

Junior middleweight Tarvis Simms, 37-years-old, sees his next fight as a "now or never" opportunity. He flies over to Germany on April 25 and takes on undefeated Gennady Golovkin (15-0, 12KOs) on the undercard to Felix Sturm's title defense against Koji Sato. Because of his age, Simms says that he needs this kind of fight to get a good world ranking.

Simms, brother of former champion Travis Simms, believes that Golovkin's people took the fight because of his age and undefeated record.

"I think I got this fight only because of my age," Simms said to The Connecticut Post. "I'm almost sure the reason they took it is because I'm 37 and they think I've lost something. But they're going to be in for a rude awakening.

"I know I'm going to have to pull a big upset. But he's going into unchartered waters. I've got to introduce him to a seasoned pro. He's 15-0. I looked at his résumé and he doesn't have any notable names on it. I'm sure he's going to start out fast, but he's not used to going 10 rounds. After four or five rounds, our plan is take him into the deeper waters and drown him."

Simms says there are now problems with taking the fight in Golovkin's backyard.

"I have no qualms about that," Simms said. "No matter where I'm at, I'm at home when I'm in that ring. They could cheer for him but they can't fight for him. It's my job to silence them all."

"I've been using some tall fighters (as sparring partners), those rangy kind of fighters," Simms said. "I don't know what to expect when I get over to Europe. I don't watch tape of my opponents. I leave that to my trainers. My job is to prepare to fight. My philosophy behind that is you may give them too much respect or no respect at all.

"Not only that if I'm watching tapes and if he's throwing a million jabs in the tapes and he doesn't throw a million jabs at me, that might mess my plans up. I like to prepare for and expect everything coming at me. Then I can make my own adjustments when I'm in there. That's what a true professional does."

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