Heath Sims (born October 14, 1971) is an American

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

, Olympic wrestler and MMA trainer. He is a long time training partner of

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American former mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a Middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champi ...

and a highly respected MMA coach who was the wrestling instructor for the US team on The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom. In 2011, he sold his share in Team Quest and moved to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

to become the head of the wrestling program at Evolve MMA.

Wrestling

Sim's Father was a freestyle wrestler who competed in the 1972 Olympic trials. As a ninth grader Sims began training with the San Clemente Jets, an amateur wrestling club where kids from all over California came to learn freestyle and Greco-Roman techniques. He won state championships in 1988 and 1989 but instead of going to college and continuing a freestyle career, Sims decided to keep wrestling in the Greco style. He became a junior national team member in 1989 and a world team member in 1990. In 1996 he quit wrestling in order to work for a computer company but he missed the competition and began to practise again, finishing third at the 1998 U.S. World Team trials. However, in 1999 while he was training at the U.S. Olympic facilities in Colorado Springs Sims flew his snowboard off a mountainside and had to be transported off the mountain by helicopter. His kidney and spleen had been lacerated and his kidney had been nearly severed. He also was a two-time All-American for Cerritos Junior College in California finishing 1st in 1998 and 2nd in 1999 at the JC tournament losing to Arsen Aleksanyan of Moorpark Junior College in the finals. Sims worked delivering groceries for a while but defied doctors orders to start wrestling again. He went to the Olympic Trials and in the best-of-three finals, Sims beat Chris Saba of Colorado Springs, 5-2, in the first match. Saba won the second match, 4-0. Sims won the final match, 3-1 to make the Olympic team.

Olympics

Sims was in Group D of the Wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman 69 kg. Also in his group were

Katsuhiko Nagata is a Japanese Amateur wrestling, wrestler and mixed martial arts, who won the silver medal in the 69 kg Wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics, Greco-Roman wrestling event at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He is also the brother of Professional ...

and Ruslan Biktyakov, Sims finished third in the group with three classification points and two technical points, making him 11th overall.

Mixed Martial Arts

Sims is an MMA coach who has worked with fighters such as

, Matt Lindland,

Chael Sonnen Chael Sonnen (; born April 3, 1977) is an American submission grappling promoter, mixed martial arts (MMA) analyst, and retired mixed martial artist. Beginning his MMA career in 1997, Sonnen competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship ...

, Tarec Saffiedine and Pat Healy at

Team Quest Team Quest is a mixed martial arts training camp founded by Randy Couture and Dan Henderson with facilities located in Gresham, Oregon; Murrieta, California; Encinitas, California; Redding, California; Hemet, California; and Chiang Mai, Thailand ...

and is currently head of the wrestling program at Evolve MMA. Sims made his MMA debut at 'Xtreme Pancration 2' in Los Angeles in April, 2002, defeating Steve Bruno by decision. In total he fought 11 times in his MMA career, including five fights for

Pancrase is a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter (entertainment), promotion company based in Tokyo. It was founded in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. The name was based on pankration, a fighting sport in the An ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and took on top fighters of the era such as Koji Oishi, Antonio McKee, Satoru Kitaoka, Yuki Sasaki and Brad Gumm before retiring in 2006 in order to focus on his coaching commitments.

Mixed martial arts record

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Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

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References

External links

* *http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Heath-Sims-4366
Heath Sims at Sports Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Heath Living people 1971 births American male mixed martial artists Welterweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing Greco-Roman wrestling Wrestlers at the 2000 Summer Olympics American male sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for the United States 20th-century American sportsmen