Jeff Simms was dangerous, he spent seven years in Sumter county correctional and later Belle Glade correctional facility on a manslaughter charge from when he was 17.. He gained notoriety after splitting Muhammad Ali's lip badly in a sparring session.. Simms moved to Yonkers to train from his home in Florida.. In 1982 Simms got himself ranked number 10 by the WBC.. But was unable to box.. Because he had three bullets lodged in him, one in his neck, one in his upper back and one in his buttock.. It wasn't the first time.. Several years earlier Simms got into an altercation with a roommate who left the apartment only to return through a fire escape window to shoot Simms numerous times,, but as Simms said it "Those bullets didn't stick." His friend Renaldo Snipes tells it straight, I never walk out with Jeff... He attracts lead.. Lol. He can't fly by airplane because of the metal detectors.. Jeff laughed.. Jeff flirted with trouble.. Simms had lost to Earnie Shavers after knocking him over... and beaten Floyd Cummings to get himself into contention.. Jeff Simms gave rising heavyweight Tyrell Biggs a nightmare in 1987, breaking Biggs collarbone in the second round before dropping a close decision.. Jeff would lose badly to twice heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon in the legendary Blue Horizon in philly in 1990, but in a strange twist contributed to Mike Tyson's shock loss to Buster Douglas less than a year later.. Jeff dropped and hurt Tyson's original opponent choice Jose Ribalta on the Tyson v Williams undercard, causing Don King to scratch Ribalta as a convincing foe and drafting in Douglas... The rest is history.. Jeff Simms would box three more times after 1990, losing each, to Bonecrusher Smith, Trevor Berbick and Phil Jackson, all credible opponents in truth, before retiring from the game.. Sadly in 1993, Jeffs wild ways would catch up with him when he was shot and killed in Florida, not far from his home.. A very dangerous heavyweight, but always troublesome...
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