Contender Champion Troy Ross Audio Interview

Cruiserweight contender Troy Ross (21-1, 15 KO’s) will make his return to the ring on June 19^th in Montreal, marking his first fight since winning “The Contender” season 4 championship in February.

As part of the co-feature to Adrian Diancanu – Jean Pascal light heavyweight title fight, Ross will meet Sacramento’s Michael Simms (20-10, 13 KO’s). The bout will be televised on the Versus network in the United States.

“I actually fought Michael Simms to qualify to go to the Olympics in 2000 in Sydney, Australia”, said Ross, a former 2 time Olympian, in an interview with 8countnews.com.

At the time, both Ross and Simms were highly regarded amateurs.  Since then, Ross has steadily climbed the professional ranks, while Simms sports the record of a journeyman. Ross is riding a 9 fight winning streak, while Simms has lost 6 of his last 7 fights.

Still, Simms has never been stopped before. While Ross TKO’d 3 out of 4 opponents en route to winning The Contender season 4 title.

“I’m going in there with the mindset it’s going the distance” said Ross, “It’s always a bonus if the fight ends early”. An approach Ross has repeatedly said he follows heading into fights.

 Originally, it was discussed that Ross would meet interim cruiserweight titleholder Ola Afolobi on June 19th. However, visa problems for Afolobi scrapped any chances of that fight taking place in the immediate future.

The fight with Afolobi would be intriguing. However, the fight Ross really wants is with cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek.

 “We were trying to make that fight happen with Adamek but from what I heard, there not interested in fighting a southpaw.” Said Ross.

Nevertheless, Ross plans on making some noise in order the make that bout happen.

 “I’m going to have to be at all his press conferences. I’m going to have to do something to fight this guy.”

Before that however, the former Olympian from Canada will fight Simms on June 19^th in Montreal. His first fight in his home country in over a year. A fact that Ross is excited about.

“It’s always good to fight at home.”