Posted on: Saturday, December 11, 2004

Bad blood will flow in Sims-Sylvia main event

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The first thing you need to know about Wes Sims and Tim Sylvia is that they don't like each other.

That alone has created a buzz for their main event fight in tonight's Super Brawl 38 mixed martial arts card at the Blaisdell Center Arena.

"He's been running his mouth at me for two years," Sylvia said. "One reason why I agreed to this fight was to shut him up."

Throw in the fact that Sims and Sylvia are two of the largest figures — literally — in mixed martial arts and it becomes a true battle of Goliaths.

Sims, a former college basketball player from Ohio, is 6 feet 10 and weighed 260 pounds yesterday. Sylvia, who is from Iowa, is 6-8 and 290 pounds.

Sylvia has a record of 15-1, and is fighting for the first time since sustaining a broken arm in his last bout in June.

"It's 100 percent," he said. "I'm going to use it to knock him out."

Sims is 6-6, and coming off a loss in Honolulu last month.

"I've been on a bad streak, but I plan on turning it around," he said. "His arm isn't ready. He knows it and I know it."

Sims was not pleased at yesterday's official weigh-in because he thought there was a weight limit for the bout.

"Nobody told me, but I guess it doesn't matter," he said. "He might be 30 pounds heavier, but that means he's out of shape."

Sylvia and Sims are nationally recognized fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization. The Super Brawl organization was recently sanctioned by UFC, allowing more "name" fighters to appear on the Super Brawl cards.

Top Hawai'i fighters Falaniko Vitale, Kai Kamaka and Kolo Koka are also scheduled to appear on the card.

Preliminaries start around 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $20 to $75.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.