It was September 27 in 1986 and Tony Sims was in his flat in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London, working on the doors while, 3,000 miles away, in Atlantic City, Lloyd Honeyghan was wrecking the world of Donald Curry.
Curry was perceived to be the world’s best fighter but the wild ‘Ragamuffin Man’ backed himself, even supposedly wagering $5,000 on victory, when he produced what is still seen – 40 years on this month – as the finest win scored by a British fighter overseas.
“I remember it,” smiles Sims. “No one gave him a shot, did they? No one even knew he was in America at all. And obviously he won the European title in Britain. But outside of that, no one knew he was over here. Going into that fight and all everyone talked about was that his [Curry] speed and his left hook. Even when you watch the fight on the telly, they talk about, ‘Oh, we don’t think Honeyghan’s going to be able to get out of the way of his left hook.’ And that’s all they spoke about. And it’s funny because it’s 40 years this month that that fight happened.
“And I remember it clearly. And I remember Mickey Duff talking about the fight and [being] confident that Honeyghan was going to beat him and Honeyghan was confident. I remember all that. And then he just went in there and just took him apart. There was no respect. He jumped on him from the bell. That’s exactly what Conor Benn’s going to do as well.”
A month before the fight, publicist Irving Rudd called the Boxing News offices and said of Lloyd: “Who is this guy, how can I sell him?”
“Lloyd facing his toughest test” was the coverline of the Boxing News preview issue on September 26, 1986. The headline inside simply said: “King Curry looks much too sharp for Lloyd.”
Curry was brilliant and many thought unbeatable as the undisputed champion at 147lbs.
There was early talk of him being “a modern great” in Tim Mo’s preview and while he pointed out Honeyghan’s form leading into the match, he surmised: “Honeyghan looks able to give what the Americans may find a surprisingly good account of himself for the first four or five rounds but somewhere before the halfway stage a vicious shot from Curry will have his legs buckling and from then on the writing will be on the wall. It looks like those three titles will be staying on the other side of the Atlantic.”
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A week later, with the cover of Honeyghan celebrating under the headline “World of his own”, was a report headlined “Super Lloyd hits Curry for six.”
Rudd, the Top Rank publicist, was now well acquainted with exactly who Honeyghan was.
“I’d come here to win, not mess about,” said Honeyghan.
Tony Sims said they’ve had a productive five weeks in the US, sharpening the tools for Garcia.
There are echoes of Honeyghan-Curry: the title, the weight, the nationalities, the odds…
And Sims couldn’t be less fazed by being the underdog.
“We had a really good camp. You know, it’s been quite amusing listening, watching everybody on social media,” he joked. “Because all the narrative’s been about just Conor Benn’s weight. Even Garcia, that’s all he spoke about. He didn’t speak about nothing else but Conor Benn’s weight. But Connor Benn, anyone who knows him personally, he’s been getting this weight off four months ago, mate.
“He’s been walking around at this weight for the last two months. Before we started sparring, even, he was already down. So there’s absolutely no problem whatsoever with his weight. He’s absolutely as strong as a lion.”
Sims said Benn deliberately released pictures of him looking slender and gaunt as a ploy, and that the bait has been gobbled up.
“He’s done all that on purpose, Conor has,” Sims explained. “He’s made the narrative that he can’t do the weight. He’s had [coach] Dan Lawrence on him for months and months, doing his calories. He’s absolutely as strong as a lion. He really is.”
It was in April when Conor Benn fought Regis Prograis and won a decision over 10 rounds.
It’s a fight Sims was not a huge fan of, but it made financial sense and so they moved ahead and then moved on.
“I got a phone call six weeks out from the fight, when he wasn’t even in camp at all, saying, ‘I’m fighting Prograis in six weeks’ time.’ So I went, ‘You are joking.’ And then he told me how much money he was getting for it, because I would never have accepted that fight.
“He was nowhere near, anywhere near doing 150. And he [Prograis] was a southpaw as well. He [Benn] ain’t sparred a southpaw for four years.
“But, listen, the money talks at the end of the day, so we had to take the fight. But he was nowhere near prepared to go into that fight and lose that weight. It was a ridiculous amount of time that we got to do that.
“This is different. He’s been on this for months and months and months. This is a different kettle of fish altogether.”
Many years ago, Tony would tell me about how hard Conor Benn worked. He said about him staying back to “do the extras” after training, and what he meant by that was an extra ab circuit, accessory work, a few more rounds shadowboxing. It was the optional homework after school not everyone chose to do.
Did Sims believe that, as he invested time into a fighter so many doubted, it would pay off in such a fashion as it has this week in Las Vegas?
“You don’t know where you’re going to get with any fighter, Tris, no matter who they are,” Sims says. “If they’re top amateurs, you never know, because anything can happen in boxing and it’s a long old road and journey to get to where you need to be. So you never know that. But what I can say is he worked extremely hard to get where in position he’s in now and extremely hard and had 10 years of absolutely gruelling, gruelling grind.”
Benn’s Donald Curry is Ryan Garcia, the flashy Californian with the good looks, the rapid left hook and fast hands. Asked how highly he rates Garcia, Tony says “good fighter” three times in his opening sentence.
For good measure, he adds “top amateur”, “WBC champion”, but here comes the caveat.
“I just don’t think he’s a true 147 fighter. He was talking about after [Mario] Barrios fight, before this fight was made, to drop him back down to 140. Because if you look at his performances at 147 against Roly [Romero] and Barrios, like, I don’t really know. The jury’s out on him at 147. I mean, against Roly, he was absolutely shocking. He got put down and against Barrios, I mean, what can you really take? Everyone’s going on about a Barrios fight. What can you really take from that? Barrios looked like he didn’t want to be there at all. Bearing in mind, Barrios, just the fight before, drew with a 45-year-old Pacquiao who hadn’t boxed for years. What are we actually talking about here, do you know what I mean? He quit against Tank [Davis] with a body shot. Don’t care what anyone says, you go down from a body shot, you stay there on one knee… I’m not really sure. I’m not really bothered about it [how good Garcia might be].”
One thing Sims has unflinching belief in is his fighter’s ability to handle the neon lights of Las Vegas when he gets down to business against Garcia on Saturday night.
Benn has shown to have his dad’s snarling temperament and is always ready for a fight. Sims saw that when he was a sparmate of Nigel’s many years ago.
“Oh, yeah, he’ll absolutely love it,” Sims said of Benn striding out at the T-Mobile. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the same as walking out on White Hart Lane, is it? Do you know what I mean? 60,000 people. Obviously, there’s a smaller crowd here, but it’s still a great thing to fight in Vegas, WBC title. Obviously, [it’s] the biggest fight of his career. So he’s going to love it.”
(Garcia-Benn pictures courtesy of Zuffa Boxing)
It sounded like there was a significant British contingent at the public workouts this week. Sims said there were still more fans to come, especially after the air traffic control shenanigans through the UK that saw Sims’ family delayed getting to Vegas and this writer having to abort his scheduled trip.
“There’s loads over here,” Tony adds.
“I know there’s a lot of landing today and Friday. There’s going to be loads over here, I think, by the sounds of it.”
Asked what it was about Benn and why his popularity has not only endured but accelerated in the last two years since the enormous controversy and scrutiny he came under following the clomiphene issues, Sims believes it was the fighting heart he showed in the first Eubank fight that endeared him to the masses.
“I just think people all want to criticise him because of what his name is, because he’s Nigel Benn’s son. They all want to give him loads of stick for anything he does,” Sims says.
“That’s the trouble with social media, it’s good for one thing that you’re advertising yourself, you’re putting yourself out there and you get all these followers, but on the other hand, then you’ve got to take the abuse as well off of everybody when you do one thing wrong, and that’s the problem with it. Listen, I think people took to him after the first Eubank fight because everyone wrote him off saying a welterweight can’t beat a middleweight and he’s going to get stopped. He got Fight of the Year, and I think after that fight, everyone realised he does fight with his heart on his sleeve. Every time he fights, you’re going to see an exciting fight. It’s not going to be like a Roly and Ryan Garcia fight where they jump 10-foot away from each other and don’t throw any punches. You know what you’re going to get with him. On Saturday night, you know what you’re going to get. He’s going to come out and Garcia’s getting it stuck on him. Do you know what I mean? People think that Garcia’s going to knock him out. I just don’t think he carries the firepower to do that. I really don’t… 147… I just don’t think. When Conor had been fighting Eubank, I had him in with super middles and light heavies for that fight because Eubank’s really a super middle. I just don’t see him putting a dent in him, really. That’s my opinion, obviously. I just don’t see Garcia hurting him at all. I just think he’s going to break him up.”
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Tony Sims said he will have strong words with Thomas Taylor about Saturday’s rules of engagement. He doesn’t want Garcia to run or to hold. Sims said he will make a point of speaking to the official, because of Garcia he added: “as soon as someone gets near him on the inside, he’s like an octopus, just wraps his arms around you. We ain’t come all this way, thousands of miles, to be held to death in a fight. We want this to be a proper fight. That’s my only concern about Garcia.”
It was nearly 20 years ago when another British idol, Ricky Hatton, suffered from Joe Cortez’s constant interventions against Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas.
But Sims said of Taylor, who refereed Benn’s Sin City fight against Peter Dobson, “He’s a top referee.”
Taylor also did Garcia’s fight with Barrios.
Sims remembers 1986, when he was in his flat and he heard the news that Honeyghan had bested Curry in what is still rightly heralded as a one-of-one win by a British fighter overseas.
Danny Williams beat a faded Tyson. Randolph Turpin beat a disinterested Sugar Ray. Lennox was favoured to beat Holyfield.
But Sims reckons Benn beating Garcia in Vegas will go up alongside all of them.
“If Conor Benn pulls this off on Saturday night, that’s got to rank alongside what Honeyghan’s done. Because I ain’t seen one American press person, or British one really, that’s favouring Conor Benn to win this fight. Only the only people who are favouring him are people who actually know him. But no other fighter, not one person, is fancying Conor Benn to do this. So when he does do it, he needs to get that recognition what he’s done here. He’s done what Honeyghan’s done. He needs to get recognised that this is a massive upset what he’s going to cause here Saturday night.”