TUF Questions With Wes Sims: "I'll Be Back"

6’10" UFC veteran Wes “A-Whole Show” Sims was recognized as a dark-horse to win The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.

Boasting over 40 professional fights and having competed against former UFC champions such as Frank Mir (twice) and Tim Sylvia many believed Sims would rise to the occasion and stand in a list including Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping as an Ultimate Fighter winner.

Things didn’t go according to plan as Sims was matched up against Greco-Roman wrestling machine Justin Wren in the fifth preliminary fight of the season. Sims was taken down early and caught in a tight triangle choke into unconsciousness.

Fear not Sims fans because in this exclusive interview “The A-Whole Show” assures us that he will return and will always give the people what they want to see.

Mitch Ciccarelli: There was an incident early on in this week’s episode where you claimed you stepped on a pile of Zak Jensen’s “unborn children” in the shower. You approached and called out Jensen in front of everyone and he denied it. 

Then in a confessional he said he actually blew his nose in the shower and didn’t do what you accused him of doing. First of all what type of person blows their nose in the shower and then openly admits to doing it on national television?

Wes Sims: He knows deep down that that was not stuff from his nose because if it was from his nose then that guy has brain matter and a horrible, horrible sinus infection. I just don’t know what he was thinking but I think it was out of his hands or in his hands if you know what I mean. Uh!

Mitch Ciccarelli: Jensen seems like the type of guy that doesn’t really stand up for himself, did that make him an easy target for a guy like you to kind of rib on him a little bit?

Wes Sims: Anybody that stands in the shower and jerks Mr. Happy sets himself up to be a target.

Mitch Ciccarelli: There was a brief clip shown in between commercials where you said you were giving Jensen a hard time to help make a man out of him and then you said that Kimbo Slice was teaching him how to shank people, can you further explain this?

Wes Sims: I pick on him but there is a difference between a bully and what I did [to him] because I wasn’t going around making fun of him or being like [expletive] this guy, you know? I was picking on him but I did it out in front of everybody and everybody [on our team] picked on him, he did it to himself. Well no one on Rashad’s team picked on him because he was off limits [to them]. It was ok for us to pick on him because we were his team and we were his family but if [Team Rashad] picked on him then they had a problem.

Kimbo was giving him some advice and he was talking about prison shanking them and I just don’t know how practical that will be in life to help him.

Mitch Ciccarelli: When I interviewed you before the season aired I thought you would be the guy to receive the most amount of camera time but up until this week’s episode you haven’t really been show a whole lot. What’s the deal? Why isn’t spike featuring the A-Whole Show? Were some of your antics a bit too crazy for TV?

Wes Sims: I don’t know what is wrong with those producers I mean they either don’t have a sense of humor or they plotted this out and said ‘hey look if we put this all in one episode Sims is going to look mentally retarded and they’ll want to put him away [in a mental institution’ so they may be doing this for my best interest.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Team Rashad’s Matt Mittrione has somewhat blacklisted himself from his own team by being a “snitch” and it seems even his own coaches were frustrated with him. How did Team Rampage perceive Mittrione at the house and what were your thoughts on the guy as a person and as a fighter?

Wes Sims: I’ll tell you what Matt Mittrione is, he’s a [expletive]. Matt Mittrione is a [expletive]… Wes Sims says Matt Mittrione’s a [expletive]!

Mitch Ciccarelli: Why exactly do you feel that way about him, was it just his attitude back at the house or what?

Wes Sims: Yeah it was his attitude and just the way he carries himself. Look if I had known that Jensen was in the shower doing that the only other person I would have blamed was [Mittrione] well actually I take that back because that stuff would not have come from that man. Maybe a bloody tampon in the trashcan would have been Matt Mittrione. A bloody cloth floating in the toilet or the trash can is what I would have found from Matt Mittrione, not a pile of kids.

Mitch Ciccarelli: There was a clip of your teammate Marcus Jones asking the other coaches to pick him to fight and they were kind of teasing him with the idea that he would be competing next. How angry was Jones when they didn’t pick him and did that anger mess with his head during practice?

Wes Sims: Oh yeah Jones is very emotional and it wouldn’t take much to get in his head and mess with him so people tried to leave him alone and we as his team tried to keep people from picking on him.

Mitch Ciccarelli: What was going through your mind when Rashad decided to match you up with Justin Wren? Were you happy with the matchup or was there someone else on Team Rashad that you had your eye on to fight?

Wes Sims: Well I would have loved to beat the dog [expletive] out of Matt Mittrione and I would have also liked to beat the ink out of Darrill “Titties” Schoonover. Honestly if I would have fought earlier I thought it would have been me against Roy Nelson because I figured they might have tried to get rid of me early. What a lot of people didn’t know is that on day one, from the first day teams were picked, I got hurt. I hurt my heel real bad and had to go to the hospital to get an MRI and I had my foot all taped up before that fight.

Guys were getting hurt all the time in practice so it wasn’t something you dwell on so you either move forward and make the best of it or pull out and not be able to fight.

Mitch Ciccarelli: You were surprisingly finished very early via a tight arm-triangle choke and due to refusing to tap out you actually passed completely out cold. When you woke up did you know where you were and what was going on? If so what was your reaction?

Wes Sims: Thank God I wasn’t in the shower! I woke up thinking ‘thank God I wasn’t in the shower’, I felt water running on me and I thought ‘oh no not again, I fell and hit my head this time’. I just got caught, you know Wren is a very tough guy and I think he’ll surprise a lot of people. He’s one of the very best Greco Roman wrestlers in the world today, I mean he’s really good and he turned down a scholarship in order to continue mixed martial arts and he’s tough [but] he might be out of his weight-class.

If I was at 100% it might have been under different circumstances but I’ve said this from the beginning it’s not going to be the best fighter that wins this show it’s going to be the guy that played the game right and I mean you heard Roy Nelson wanted to fight Zak Jensen and I mean that’s like beating up on the cameraman.

Mitch Ciccarelli: During the stare-down you towered over the guy like a skyscraper. You had to have been the tallest fighter in the competition and I think because of that most people would have thought Wren would have had a difficult time taking you down but maybe your heel injury played a factor?

Wes Sims: Oh yeah for sure I went to move my foot back and it gave out as I put weight on the heel.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Were you a bit surprised with Wren’s abilities because I mean obviously you knew the guy was a great Greco-Roman wrestler but did you expect him to have slick submissions?

Wes Sims: No and it doesn’t show it but that same week I got choked out in practice, I got caught and I don’t know if it makes it any easier to get choked out but everyone knows I’ve never been submitted and it’s all been technical submissions where the ref has had to stop the fight. When Wren put me in [the arm triangle choke] I don’t remember [referee] Herb [Dean] touching my hand, I saw Herb standing back and then everything turned white and I don’t remember anything else.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Rampage thought you were going to do the whole Hulk Hogan power-up thing when Herb raised your arm up, that would have been pretty cool, huh?

Wes Sims: I’ll tell you something… it has been said that immortality lies in Wes Sims and had he only lifted my arm one more time I would have come back like some type of Greek God. I would have stood up with Wren wrapped around my neck and thrown him off over the cage. It’s just a shame, it’s just a shame he didn’t give me one last arm-up.

Mitch Ciccarelli: You were somewhat of a big name before coming onto the show, well at least in the eyes of hardcore fans you were known. Now after being on the show, even in a losing effort you’ll have created an even bigger fan base because let’s be honest you aren’t exactly a boring personality. With that being said do you think Dana will give you another chance to fight in the UFC or was this your last opportunity?

Wes Sims: Nah I’m pretty sure I’ll be back, I’m pretty sure of that. The thing is I’ve just got to take it and be ready. I mean look at some of the guys who’ve been on the show [from previous seasons] like Leben who lost twice on the show and Jardine who also lost [his first fight] and they’ve come back and been successful. They bring guys back so you’ve just got to be prepared and you’ve got to be ready.

I’ve always said the worst possible thing to do is, everybody wants to win but if you win boring and put on a snooze fest people aren’t going to want to see you. They’d rather see you go out to give it your all and [even if] you get beat know you left it all in the ring.  I made a promise from day one when I came into the UFC that none of my fights would ever be boring.

Mitch Ciccarelli: What were your thoughts on Dana’s post-fight comments about your performance? He said “I don’t know what happened to Wes Sims since he’s been out of the UFC but he did not look good at all”.

Wes Sims: He picked me to win it and then I lost and he said ‘man I don’t know what the hell happened to Wes Sims since he left the UFC’ but you know Dana’s honest when he says it and he wasn’t there that much. He doesn’t know what’s really going on, he didn’t know how our training was going and he didn’t know how good some of the guys are or how they were doing because he’s a busy man and I mean look how far the sport has gotten because of him.

It’s just constructive criticism [what he said] and Wren got me that night but I was in a room filled with 18 people but put 15,000 in front of me and I’ll march out and stomp someone’s ass.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Team Rashad is now up 5-0 and it’s obvious Rampage and his coaching staff are extremely frustrated. Did their frustration affect their coaching ability in a negative way or did it kind of motivate the remaining fighters to work that much harder in training so they could get the team out of their slump?

Wes Sims: Well Hector Ramirez is one hell of a coach and he was in there every day pushing us as was Coach Tom and Junior. Tiki and Rampage, they’re good guys but they just have their own style, I don’t know what you want to call it but they’ve got their own style.

Mitch Ciccarelli: The three remaining fighters on Rampage’s team are Marcus Jones, Scott Junk and Zak Jensen. From experience training with these three guys what can you say about their fighting ability and their chances of winning the competition?

Wes Sims: Nothing’s out of the question, I mean we had a bad start and everyone wants to pull together. It’s rough and it’s just like anything, when you get on a roll some guys will win and they’ll just keep winning fights when on paper you’re just like ‘there’s no way this guy can win this fight’ but he just keeps winning and our team kept losing and the other team just got on a roll. They continued to have control of the picks and guys stayed healthy and it is what it is.

Mitch Ciccarelli: According to last week’s episode Rampage called Junk the ‘team captain’ is that true? Was he the leading man for the team?

Wes Sims: Junk always churned in his two-cents but as for team captain I don’t think we really had a team captain. Everybody was there for a goal and we looked to our coaches and we just trained hard and every day of the week we were training our asses off in there.

Mitch Ciccarelli: A preview into next week shows Darrill Schoonover and Rampage getting into it at the gym. How serious was the rivalry between these two? I mean we’ve seen Rampage give Schoonover some flack about his “titties” but is there more to it than that?

Wes Sims: Schoonover got called that name on a daily basis and he just takes it personal. Rampage is reluctant and he won’t stop, he’ll keep calling him titties and it just got under his skin and started to mess with him.

Mitch Ciccarelli: What other antics can we expect from you? Is there a lot more of the A-Whole Show to come?

Wes Sims: Oh for sure and I’ll tell you something, if they cut out a lot of this then this [season] will probably be the best selling DVD ever. That means bonus footage, baby! There’s Wes Sims everywhere and if they don’t put it on Spike then there’s going to be a Pay-Per-View show like Jerry Springer cause I’ll tell you there’s some terrific [expletive] to come. And you didn’t bring it up or ask but yes he was accused of sniffing my shorts.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Who’s that now?

Wes Sims: Jensen… who else?

Mitch Ciccarelli: Alright Wes well thanks for taking the time out to talk with me tonight. I wish you the best of luck in the future and hopefully this won’t be the last time we see you in the Octagon. If there is anything else you’d like to say, go for it.

Wes Sims: This will not be the last time you see Wes Sims, I will be back.

Now let's take a look at the B/R Ultimate Fighter fantasy standings for week five:

Matt Randall: 10 points
Jon Madsen
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Flying Knee: 8 points
Jon Madsen
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Justin Wren

Aoife O’Connor: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Peta Waller: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Alysha Diaz: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Melanie Wray: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Cameron Mumford: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Lynn Donegan: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Sinaed Marie O’Hara: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

E. Spencer Kyte: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Jessy Morris: 8 points
James McSweeney
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Ken Foss: 8 points
Jon Madsen
Roy Nelson
Brendan Schaub
Justin Wren

Mitch Ciccarelli: 6 points
Jon Madsen
Roy Nelson
Brendan Scaub

The Truth Turcott: 2 points
Justin Wren

Stoker Mac: 2 points
Justin Wren