“If you’re supposed to box, you fight. When you’re supposed to fight, you box. You’re going to have problems,” Bradley said while discussing the bout.
Sims showed that tendency in his loss to Oscar Duarte in August 2025. Instead of using his movement and boxing ability, he stood and traded blows with the heavy-handed Mexican. Duarte had the stronger punch, and the fight tilted his way as the exchanges piled up. A more disciplined boxing approach probably would have given Sims a better chance.
Bradley added Sims has plenty of natural ability, including the versatility to switch positions and fight off the back foot. But he argued that those tools can become a liability when Sims overthink situations or change tactics at the wrong time.
“You definitely have more skills,” Bradley said. “You can do it from both sides. But sometimes your whole system gets messed up because you don’t know which position you want to be in. You want to be left, you want to be right.”
Bradley compared the issue to mistakes he made earlier in his own career, describing himself as a fighter who sometimes complicated fights by abandoning proper strategy.
“I was the same way,” Bradley said. “Straight knucklehead. We’re making fights harder than they should be.”
Bradley also suggested that Sims sometimes gets too comfortable trading blows when a more disciplined approach would serve him better. From his perspective, the key for Sims is to pick the right tactic and stick with it long enough to control the action.
Despite the criticism, Bradley still believes Sims has the ability to win the fight if he keeps his tactics simple and sticks to the right approach at the right moments.
“You can get it done,” Bradley said. “But you better fight against the right strategy at the right times.”
Barboza and Sims are scheduled to meet in a 12-round welterweight bout on Saturday, March 14, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The bout will serve as the main event of a DAZN broadcast card.
