Tony Sims believes that Johnny Fisher needs more time with him before the young heavyweight is in a position to be stepped up.
In their first fight together since Fisher recruited the experienced Sims to be his new trainer after separating from Mark Tibbs following his first defeat, in May by David Allen, the reckless Fisher was dropped in the opening round by Slovakia’s Ivan Balaz at Salle des Etoiles, Monte Carlo, and was fortunate to not be issued with a count.
On the undercard of Shabaz Masoud’s EBU junior-featherweight title victory over Peter McGrail he regardless fought back until stopping his previously undefeated opponent in the fourth round.
Sims is also training Fisher’s fellow English heavyweight Daniel Dubois, having previously guided Anthony Joshua to the IBF heavyweight title. He also continues to see the potential in Fisher regardless of the 26 year old ignoring his instructions not to take risks.
The trainer expects Fisher to fight again in March at London’s Copper Box Arena on the same Matchroom promotion as George Liddard and Jimmy Sains, two of his other fighters. He does not, however, yet want a more ambitious opponent for Fisher, wary, as he is, that what he needs most is patience and time.
“Eddie [Hearn] mentioned March,” Sims told BoxingScene. “I think he’s going to do a big bill at the Copper Box with Liddard and Sains and Fisher and all that. He was talking about March.
“He didn’t mention any opponent. It’ll just be another opponent. I just need to build on him, really, at the minute. He’s still new with me and that, so I just need to keep building on him, do you know what I mean? It was a good fight; experience fight for him. He got through the first round and then he boxed well after, so it was a good experience for him.
“I’m pleased with his attitude towards training; his attitude towards learning, as well. That’s what I’m saying. It’s a shame [he got hurt in the first], because I think in the third and fourth round when he was boxing smart and he was putting his punches together he looked like quite a good heavyweight, you know what I mean?
“He looked quite decent. He had fast hands; you could see he could punch; his footwork was really nimble for a big man, do you know what I mean? There was a lot of things he looked good with. But, you know people will remember that first round and how vulnerable he was. But heavyweight boxing – that’s how it goes. It can just change on the flip of a coin, you know – one shot.”
Fisher remains one of Matchroom’s most popular British fighters. His effectiveness as a ticket seller potentially places him under pressure to quickly progress.
“He done the exact opposite I told him to do in the first round,” Sims continued. “I mean, me instruction is always the same for near enough all my fighters. ‘Just take a good look at them in the first round. A little bit of feigning, work your jab, just take a look at him.’ And he come out like a bull in a china shop, really, and he was winging ‘em everywhere and he got nailed himself. It was a bit ridiculous, what he done. But lucky enough he pulled himself back together in the next round, and I thought three and four he boxed pretty well, really. He looked good. It’s a shame because if he’d boxed like that in the first round, everyone’d be saying it was a good performance. But they’re going to say there’s question marks over him again, you know what I mean?
“He said to me afterwards he just wanted to go out there and knock him out in the first round to make a statement and say ‘Look, I’m back – boom’. But I said to him ‘You nearly got knocked yourself out in the first round, so things like that don’t work. You have to be a bit smart.’ The geezer was like – we didn’t know anything about him. He only boxed like three weeks ago. He was like 7-0, with five KOs, so he obviously can bang a little bit, whichever way you look at it. Put it this way, he scared me off a bit in the first round, do you know what I mean? I was pleased that he had the sense to grab a hold of him for the last 30 seconds and whatever; just grab ahold of him and concede the round. He was kind of alright after that, do you know what I mean?
“I’m just pleased he got the job done and then just move on. I said to him afterwards, ‘The radical thing you just learned there is never go out there and try to take someone out in the first round’, you know what I mean? Things like that – if it happens, it happens, but just going and looking for it is definitely when you get caught yourself. I’ve seen it so many times in the past.”
