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By Jori Parys
June 19, 2023 / 4:58 PM CDT / CBS Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) — Englewood native Kenneth Sims Jr. is making noise in pro boxing.
His latest win last month was his seventh straight, and a WBA super lightweight title eliminator. But as CBS 2’s Jori Parys reported Monday, Sims has fought through obstacles to get where he is – including managing sickle cell.
Sims put on a pair of boxing gloves for the first time at 8 years old.
“My dad forced me to box – and I hated it,” Sims said.
But the young Sims was a natural.
“He picked up things so fast that it was like, ‘Oh, show him this – he has it,” said Sims’ dad, Kenneth Sims Sr.
“He was like, ‘When you learn how to it, you can quit,'” said Sims Jr. “By that point, I didn’t want to quit.”
Sims has fought around the world as a member of the USA Boxing national team, and turned pro in 2014.
He rattled off a 2021 record with seven knockouts since.
But Sims’ latest win raised eyebrows. A 12-round bout against Batyr Akhmedov being ended by majority decision came as no surprise to Sims.
“I seen all the tweets people talk about me seen article people talk about me,” said Sims. “So it was like satisfying to prove them wrong – and satisfying prove people that believed in me right.”
What did Sims prove to himself in that fight?
“Nothing. Nothing,” he said. “I just did what I knew I could do.”
Sims hasn’t lost since a fight since 2018. That was when he noticed something felt off.
“All my energy just went away, and I was just like this – kind of like a zombie before the fight,” said Sims.
Sims was dealing with the side effects of sickle cell – a disease that affects red blood cells’ shape and ability to carry oxygen.
“The first thing they tell you about it is to be careful of strenuous work – so that’s his life,” said Sims’ fiancée, Jailyn Brown. “He has to be sure that he’s taking vitamins; be sure that he’s very hydrated.”
“My mind’s saying do stuff in the ring, but I can’t move, really – my body won’t let me do it. It was a big obstacle for me to overcome,” Sims said. “After I lost, my team, my uncle, my dad – we all was doing research. Went to the doctor got bloodwork stuff done, and I hired nutritionists and stuff. Since I’ve been working with them, I’ve been feeling great.”
Sims ascension to No. 2 in WBA rankings hasn’t come without its challenges but all have led to the present point – preparing with hopes for a world title shot.
“This is where you’re supposed to be. I’ve always said that,” said Sims Sr. “The community we come in you have to figure out how to get through things and that’s always what I’ve preached to him.”
Sims Jr. – a boxer known as “Bossman” – is a true family man with kids of his own, and credits his family as his inspiration. He said it means a lot to be from Chicago, and hopes to one day bring a world title fight to his home city.
Until then, the pro boxer from Englewood will keep working to make his dreams a reality.
“Growing up, I used to watch showtime championship boxing,” said Sims. “Now I’m on it.”
Three fights ago, sims wasn’t ranked. Now he’s No. 2 in world, and will get the first shot to challenge for a world title.
First published on June 19, 2023 / 4:58 PM CDT
© 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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By Brandon Downs, Cecilio Padilla
Updated on: November 27, 2023 / 12:28 PM PST / CBS Sacramento
SACRAMENTO COUNTY – Two men died after they were shot outside of a bar in Sacramento County early Sunday morning, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said. 
Deputies responded to Sacto By Night at 7121 Governors Circle at about 1:45 a.m. 
A group of people who were leaving the bar got into a fight outside, leading to a shooting, deputies said. 
The victims, who were two men, died at the scene, deputies said. One of them was the owner of the bar.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office believe a group of gang members who initially refused to leave the nightclub at closing is at the center of the incident. Those gang members apparently got involved in a fight in the parking lot, investigators said, with the suspected shooter being one of those gang members.
Witnesses described a white vehicle that took off from the scene. Deputies said the CHP located a vehicle matching the description and detained four people from that vehicle. 
The people detained have since been identified as being allegedly involved in the shooting. Several guns have been recovered. 
According to the sheriff’s office, the names of the suspects will be released once homicide and related charges are filed.
Brandon comes to CBS13 from Action News Now (KHSL/KNVN) in Chico where he spent two years as the Digital Content Manager.
First published on November 26, 2023 / 3:05 PM PST
© 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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UFC 295 promised two new champions and two men stepped up and delivered.
By the end of Saturday night, Alex Pereira laid claim to the light heavyweight title that has been tossed around like a hot potato over the past two years and Tom Aspinall became the interim champion of a heavyweight division that won’t see its undisputed titleholder compete anytime soon.
So the question has to be asked: Are these two truly the best in the world in their respective weight classes?
First off, let’s look at where Aspinall landed in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings after his momentous win over Sergei Pavlovich.
Aspinall received five first-place votes to Jon Jones’ three, edging Jones out by the narrowest of possible margins. That makes sense given that our aforementioned question looms larger for Aspinall than it does for Pereira.
Interim implies that Aspinall’s time at the top is designed to be finite while the undisputed champ recovers from a pectoral injury. Jones looked nothing short of dominant when he bulldozed Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 and was worthy of the No. 1 spot even without having defeated lineal champion Francis Ngannou (who was only recently removed from our rankings due to MMA inactivity). However, with that being Jones’ lone win in the division and the likelihood that it will be over a year between fights for him by the time he returns, Aspinall marches past him in our rankings.
Call it disrespectful to the GOAT if you will, call it recency bias, but it’s easy to make a case that Aspinall deserves to be called the best heavyweight in the world right now. He’s 7-1 in the UFC now with all of his wins coming by way of knockout or submission and that lone loss being due to a freak injury. Unlike Jones, he’s actually been active in the division knocking off ranked opponents including Pavlovich, Marcin Tybura, Alexander Volkov, and Serghei Spivac. Just as importantly, he’ll probably remain active in early 2024.
You can credit Jones for his sterling work at light heavyweight, but at the end of the day it is a different division and, respectfully, the last time he had a dominant win at 205 pounds was well over four years ago.
Full disclosure, I am one of the panelists who voted for Aspinall and after reviewing the facts, Aspinall sounds like a proper No. 1-ranked fighter to me. Sorry, “Bones.”
Alex Pereira’s case to be No. 1 is more clear-cut and while he tops our light heavyweight rankings more comfortably, he still falls short of undisputed status.
Six of our panelists crowned Pereira as MMA’s best at 205 pounds after his second-round knockout of our incumbent No. 1 Jiri Prochazka, which is as insane as it sounds given that the Glory Kickboxing Hall of Famer is barely a year removed from beating Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title in just his eighth pro MMA fight. Saturday’s fight with Prochazka was his 11th.
These things just… aren’t supposed to happen? Getting fast-tracked to one title and delivering? Fine, we’ve seen plenty of fighters do that under varying circumstances. But romping to two UFC titles in under a dozen fights in the modern era? What are we even doing anymore?
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Those conundrums may explain why Pereira’s bid for No. 1 wasn’t backed by a pair of voters, who instead went with Jamahal Hill—who vacated the UFC light heavyweight title due to injury—and Bellator’s Vadim Nemkov instead. Like Aspinall, Hill and Nemkov have a case based on their activity in the division. Should Pereira’s wins over Prochazka and Jan Blachowicz outweigh Hill’s recent hot streak (including a one-sided drubbing of then-champion Glover Teixeira) or Nemkov’s sensational Bellator championship run (the man hasn’t lost a fight in seven years!)?
Admittedly, part of the hesitance to rank Pereira No. 1 has to come from our rational minds struggling to come to grips with what he’s accomplished in his brief cagefighting career. It just doesn’t make sense. That said, until Hill returns or Nemkov jumps ship or Magomed Ankalaev fights his way out of limbo, Pereira is as deserving of the top spot as anyone.
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