Kenneth Sims Jr. couldn’t have asked for a better opponent to help him prove Saturday night that he is a championship-caliber boxer in the 140-pound division.
In fact, Sims believes Batyr Akhmedov should own the WBA super lightweight title. From Sims’ viewpoint, Akhmedov deserved a victory over Alberto Puello on August 20, when Puello edged Akhmedov by split decision to win the then-unclaimed championship.
“I’m ecstatic because I’ve just been waiting to prove that I’m one of the guys that’s at the top of this division,” Sims told BoxingScene.com. “And me, personally, I think that [Akhmedov] should be the WBA world champion. So, this will give me the opportunity to be able to show that I can compete and dominate at that level.”
Uzbekistan’s Akhmedov (9-2, 8 KOs) and Chicago’s Sims (19-2-1, 7 KOs) will square off in a 12-round WBA 140-pound elimination match that Showtime will televise from The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Akhmedov is ranked third among the WBA’s contenders in the super lightweight division. Sims is ranked 10th by the WBA.
The 32-year-old Akhmedov, a 2016 Olympian, beat Puello on the scorecard of judge Lisa Giampa, 115-113. Judges Benoit Roussel and Mark Streisand scored their 12-rounder identically, 117-111 for Puello, in a fight Showtime televised from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
“It was a close fight,” Sims said. “It wasn’t like I thought [Akhmedov] clearly won. I thought it was a close fight. I thought he pulled it out because I thought he was aggressive in the middle rounds. Puello started fast, and I thought Akhmedov edged it by a little bit, not by much.”
The Dominican Republic’s Puello (21-0, 10 KOs) was scheduled to make his first title defense against Rolly Romero in Showtime’s main event Saturday night. Puello tested positive for Clomiphene, a banned substance, last month, though, and was replaced by Venezuelan contender Ismael Barroso.
Puello has since been rendered champion in recess by the WBA, thus Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) and Barroso (24-3-2, 22 KOs) will fight for the vacant WBA 140-pound championship (https://www.boxingscene.com/puello-named-wba-140-pound-champ-recess-romero-barroso-fight-vacant-title–174488).
Sims, meanwhile, is motivated to defeat Akhmedov more decisively than Puello and Mario Barrios beat him. San Antonio’s Barrios (27-2, 18 KOs) dropped Akhmedov twice and won a 12-round unanimous decision in September 2019 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“I think beating him in a dominant fashion, like leaving no questions, would be good,” Sims said. “The other two losses he has were questionable losses and I wanna make sure that when I beat him there’s no questions and it’s a clear win. Because he’s ranked number three in the WBA, and that’ll show everybody like, OK, I deserve to be in at least the top three.”
The 29-year-old Sims produced his most impressive victory almost two years ago, when he upset then-undefeated Dominican southpaw Elvis Rodriguez (14-1-1, 12 KOs) by majority decision in an eight-round bout at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Akhmedov-Sims will be the first of three fights Showtime will air Saturday night (9 p.m. EDT; 6 p.m. PDT). Before Romero battles Barroso in the main event, Cuba’s Rances Barthelemy (29-2-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) will meet Omar Juarez (14-1, 5 KOs), of Brownsville, Texas, in the 10-round co-feature.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.