A Beast Is Made 3

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A BEAST is Made 3

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2004/03/27

Seth Petruzelli [0-0] represented the next effort to help Sapp look like a competitive fighter. This time, however, Kakuda would use his influence outside the ring.

From the outset, Sapp swarmed Petruzelli but met a well prepared defense. When Sapp stopped attacking, his opponent unloaded a left that sent Sapp sprawling on the canvas. After receiving the count, Sapp raced at Petruzelli swinging for the fences.

Petruzelli went to the canvas holding his elbow. The referee immediately started the count. Unsettled but lucid, Petruzelli listened to the referee and beat the count. The referee then told the timekeeper to stop the clock for a "time out". Within seconds, the gong sounded ending the fight. Petruzelli appealed to the astonished referee stating that he was indeed able to continue and that he had beaten the count. Sadly, it wasn't the referee who stopped the fight. Kakuda, Sapp's personal referee, then entered the ring, mic in hand, to explain that Petruzelli had failed to make the count, so Sapp was declared the winner. Later in the event, Kakuda again stepped in the ring to justify the stoppage stating that Petruzelli had a pinched nerve and briefly lost the feeling in his arm hence the victory for Sapp.

Record	DQs	Rounds	Times Down	Kakuda
6-3	2	12	5	6

2004/04/30

The next opponent was Tommy Glanville who gave up size, strength and even speed to Bob Sapp. It appeared that fighters of the caliber of Leopoldo and Petruzelli were too risky for the K-1 flagship. The fact that Kakuda was no longer permitted to officiate in Nevada may have also made the situation risky. Apparently, Sapp's trainers wanted to see more defense and they did. Sapp started the fight blocking everything Glanville threw. When Sapp threw his first punch however, it resulted in a knockdown that ended the fight.

Record	DQs	Rounds	Times Down	Kakuda
7-3	2	13	5	6

2004/06/26

Next was the Ray Sefo fight. Sapp had lost both interest and confidence in the fight game. Presented with a choice between Frans Botha, Gary Goodridge and Ray Sefo, he turned to Sam Greco for advice. The final choice was Sefo because a win would be on par with the Hoost victories while a loss wouldn't produce the damage that Leopoldo and Petruzelli delivered.

When the opening bell rang, Sapp rushed Sefo and let loose everything he had. As soon as he slowed down, Sefo started firing back. At one point Sapp pushed Sefo against the ropes. His opponent threw a knee that shifted his cup. Sapp crumpled to the ground.

As it was an accidental blow, Kakuda knew he couldn't DQ Sefo, but Sapp himself didn't. When told that he had to get up and continue, Sapp responded "But Remy didn't have to." After several minutes of recovery time, the fight resumed. Sapp rushed Sefo and punched him below the belt. When he got to the neutral corner, he was surprised that Sefo had refused to take the recovery time. The New Zealander was angry and wanted to fight. The round ended with Sapp in the corner covering up and taking blow after blow with Kakuda cheering him on.

In the second round, Sapp took a right to the head and fell to the ground and waited for Kakuda to finish the count. This was the longest count ever given to a fighter. Kakuda stopped at 8 and let several seconds elapse before waving the fight off.

Record	DQs	Rounds	Times Down	Kakuda
7-4	2	15	6	7

To briefly sum up his career until now, the K-1 flagship had had 11 fights, won 7, lost 4 and lost by DQ twice. His DQ ratio was a staggering 18.2%. If Hoost had the same DQ percentage, he would have 21 losses by DQ on his record. Sapp had fought in 15 rounds [including partial rounds] and had been knocked down 6 times for a ratio of one knockdown every 2.5 rounds. Lastly, Nobuaki Kakuda has officiated in 7 of his 11 matches. Of these 7 matches, 3 showed him favoring Sapp to the point of helping him take the victory: Hoost II, Leopoldo and Petruzelli. The fourth fight demonstrating executive preference was the Abidi fight which was refereed by none other than K-1 producer Kazuyoshi Ishii himself.

So what was that all about?

When Bob Sapp came to the fight game, he was fairly desperate. He wasn't a fighter who was broke. He was a broke guy who decided he could make a buck by becoming a fighter.
Bob Sapp was a huge man with speed and naivety. It wasn't until the Filipovic fight where he had his orbital bone cracked that he realized that he could get hurt if he allowed skilled fighters to unload clean strikes.
Bob Sapp was a clumsy giant. Trained fighters like Nakasako, Abidi and Hoost had no idea what direction the strikes were coming from. With every fight, however, he produced video footage which could be analyzed by professional trainers for his future opponents.
Bob Sapp was in a race against time. He had to learn techniques to defeat his world class opponents before they figured him out. Hoost exposed the legs and the belly which immediately became targets he had to protect against expert kickboxers. He also had to learn not only to keep his eyes open when under attack but also when attacking.
Bob Sapp's match makers selected "easy kills" to help him develop and they either nearly beat him [Leopoldo and Petruzelli] or put up no fight at all [Akebono and Glanville].
Bob Sapp started throwing novice strikes in the Leopoldo fight [knees] and the Sefo fight [kicks]. He tried to build a defense first system in the Glanville fight. In nearly every case, he looked robotic. This is common among fighters who are too conscious of the techniques they use. Sapp was not putting his time in the gym.
Bob Sapp lost his naivety one fight at a time and it cost him his courage. He dreaded entering the ring with more experienced kickboxers. These same elite fighters were very willing to meet the famous Sapp. Ray Sefo wasn't fully healed from his fractured arm yet didn't think twice before accepting the opportunity to put Sapp on his record.

The Other Sport

Bob Sapp got his first big break in MMA [mixed martial arts] with a promotional company called Pride. Even when he switched to kickboxing with K-1, he continued to fight under both rule styles. Here is his MMA record:

2002/04/28 Sapp defeated Yoshihisa Yamamoto by TKO. The fight was so quick that few fans remember it.

2002/06/23/ Sapp defeated Kiyoshi Tamura by TKO. Like the other Pride match in April, Sapp showed no skill and won by mauling a smaller man.

2002/08/28 Sapp lost by armbar submission to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In front of 90,000 MMA fans, Sapp surprised the world and his expert opponent with a near upset. In the opening seconds, Nogueira showed no respect for Sapp's size and attempted a double leg take down. Sapp lifted the Brazilian and spiked his head into the canvas. He then followed up with heavy blows but couldn't finish off his opponent. In the second round, Nogueira took advantage of Sapp's poor stamina and locked the arm.

2002/12/31 Sapp defeated Yoshihiro Takayama by armbar. Unlike Yamamoto and Tamura [above], Takayama was a fake-wrestler with nearly no skill in the fight game. Sapp initiated the usual "ground and pound" strategy but took advantage of his opponents absence of fighting skill to finish the fight with a grappling technique.

2003/09/21 Sapp defeated Stefan Gamlin by choke. Gamlin was another mountain of a man with even less skill than Sapp. After a brief exchange of blows, Sapp got a front headlock on Gamlin and applied a choke.

2004/03/14 Sapp defeated Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren by TKO. This Mongolian had two claim's to fame. He was the reigning Yokuzuna's older brother and he was an Olympic wrestler in the Sydney Games. He also took an injury into the ring. Despite easily dominating Sapp through the first round, Sumiyabazar aggravated his injury and threw in the towel before the second round got started.

2004/05/22 Sapp lost to Kazuyuki Fujita by KO. Sapp needed a real victory and the executive decision was to have him face Fujita. Win or lose, Sapp would gain the respect he earned when he fought Noguiera. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Fujita humiliated Sapp. Beginners know that if your opponent is standing, you must be on your back with your feet facing the foe. A distant second choice is to be on your hands and knees with your head facing the opponent. Sapp opted for the worst choice; he was on back with his head facing Fujita. Never in his fight career did Sapp ever pay much attention to reducing his opponents offensive strikes and this was no exception. He took brutal and gratuitous soccer kicks to the head until his will to fight was completely broken.

2004/12/31 Sapp drew with Jerome LeBanner under special rules. The first and third rounds were K-1 rules [kickboxing] while the second and fourth rounds were MMA style rules. Between rounds, the gloves were switched. LeBanner threw an unbelievable 97 strikes in the first round and scored a knockdown. Sapp got the mounted position in the second but couldn't get an arm lock or execute a "ground and pound". LeBanner continued to beat on Sapp in the 3rd round but couldn't put him away. Both fighters were drained in the fourth and engaged in harmless rolling around.