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The Beast Comes Home
By John Philapavage | December 22, 2007
For the life of me I’ve never been able to figure out Bob Sapp. He was a cultural phenomenon in Japan for years. Sapp was bigger then Chuck Liddell or any UFC fighter has ever had the opportunity to be. He was so big he apparently had no time to train for his fights – for almost three years. Don’t get me wrong, Sapp had the right people around him, it just didn’t seem like the knowledge was transferred.
Somehow Sapp stayed physically gigantic (somehow), but he just didn’t have the time to learn his craft effectively. Consequently an odd mix of MMA and kickboxing superstars and freak shows only found in the Japanese scene beat Sapp.
That, or Sapp was given questionable wins and preferential treatment. You haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed Sapp somehow winning the most famous kickboxing tournament in the world, or the physically massive Bob Sapp trying to fight Mirko Cro Cop. When Sapp gets hit in the face, he literally looks like a crying little girl, before losing the match.
I’ve never understood if Sapp wanted to be an entertainer or a fighter. He’s genetically and athletically gifted, and had he started training in the famed dojos of Japan in 2001 when he made his way across the Pacific, he’d be a major force in MMA by now. Yet he has had far more pro wrestling matches than shoot encounters over the last several years. He’s no closer to a skill player then he was when the African American landed in K-1.
Maybe that was always the plan. It’s not as if Sapp HAS to be a technical wizard. Sapp’s bank account is bigger than almost every major mix martial artist in the sport’s short history (in fairness, Japanese aficionado – and my bossman – Zach Arnold has mentioned to me there is a strong belief Sapp either blew a bunch of his money or K-1 stiffed him). I just assume Sapp would want to learn some moves to keep from getting punched, kicked, and stretched during his matches.
Strikeforce announced recently that they’d signed Bob Sapp for a debut in the Pacific Northwest recently. Scott Coker must have several good connections to the Japanese K-1 promotion, or he’s a gambling man. K-1 has been contractually battling Sapp and cease-and-desisting anyone who makes eyes at Sapp for years. We’ll assume, though, that Bob Sapp is coming back home to America. The Japanese landscape financially dead beyond New Year’s Eve, Sapp will have to come back home to a U.S. market that barely knows him, where shenanigans that Sapp has been involved in gets you suspended by athletic commissions. Can Sapp make a dent, or even survive?
I don’t know what Strikeforce paid to Sapp, but I do know he had to bid with other MMA interests and pro-wrestling financial juggernaut WWE. If Coker signed Sapp to more than two million guaranteed he’s losing a lot of money. I can’t see Sapp signing anything long term, nor would it be a good investment. Sapp is the definition of sizzle over substance, and it takes major attention to turn that sizzle into steak. Cable or network TV attention. Most likely this is one of those loss-leader business deals; the kind that clutter the entire MMA landscape, like the dotcom boom of the late nineties.
How could this possibly be a good deal? A few ideas on why this might make sense past knee jerk reactions:
1. The Asian population of Seattle, Washington is strong, and that doesn’t include the bunches of wealthy white males 18-34 that live there.
The greater Seattle area, according to a census in the year 2000, had 563,374 people living there. 67.1 percent were white. The next biggest grouping racially? Asians, by far. 16.6%. I have to imagine in almost eight years that number has only grown. Seattle is well known as a Japanese immigrant haven. In fact, before many Japanese baseball players began to branch out, it was the Seattle Mariners that provided a gateway to players like Ichiro Suzuki. The Asian community is strong, and they’ve either lived in Japan, or they’ve got good connections to home.
Translation: These people know who Bob Sapp is, and they might not even be fight fans, but they know Sapp is a star. Sapp still holds ratings records in Japan for New Year’s Eve TV ratings.
2. This isn’t a UFC level deal.
I don’t think Coker is dumb enough to negotiate a deal at a UFC-price level. Sapp doesn’t work in a UFC environment because he’s too much of an entertainer, and he’s most likely be exposed to early in the contract to make the millions back. People have been leery of the deal UFC signed with Brock Lesnar, but Lesnar has ten times the chance of winning in the UFC than Sapp would. Lesnar might have been a pro-wrestler, but he comes with an impressive amateur background. Lesnar trains hard and knows the competitive MMA scene, where as Sapp has never been forced to do so. And even with an embarrassing loss, Sapp was still over with the Japanese fans. Lesnar will have to look very competitive in losing, and Sapp would not.
So it’s reasonable to say that if Lesnar level money was out there, Sapp would be in the UFC right now. It’s not, so he’s downsized. Sapp probably realized his big time Japanese payoff days were over, and wanting to get away from K-1 anyway, he decided to come home to less money.
I would imagine Coker didn’t go above 1.5 million over three fights, and I’d guess the contract is closer to a million before incentives. It’s all conjecture, but if you’ll see my third point it makes sense for all parties to have a contract with gate incentives or PPV bonuses if he headlines a show. With a budget of $333,333 USD per Sapp fight, and most of the other fighters coming in at well under fifty-thousand, the bottom line doesn’t look so bad.
3. Scott Coker understands local promoting. Coker, much like Monte Cox, knows how to stay near the money without to much personal risk. Coker was the Vegas middleman for K-1 for years.
Look no further then what he’s done in San Jose. He built up a local ethnic draw in Cung Le and a possible national draw in Frank Shamrock. He’s kept men like them competitive yet most protected. He’s involved local gyms and schools like American Kickboxing Academy. He’s got a good understanding of the area’s mixed martial arts community, and that he’s in an area where there is one. Young fighters sell tickets and promote the shows to that community, all the great things a promoter of fights does at a local level.
Coker is in luck. Bob Sapp has trained and kept residence out of the Washington state region since he began in Mixed Martial Arts. Before that, he was a star football player in college at Washington. The local media knows Sapp from sports and movies. The local fight community knows Sapp, because many of them are transplants from Japan. Most importantly, there is a fight fan community. There are other fighters, lesser known, who can be promoted as well. Since Sapp won’t be challenged with world class fighters at first, his personality will have to take time to grow with the fans. The monster image will not be tested early and the investment will be theoretically safe for the first year to eighteen months.
Looking at the Sapp investment, if they gave him a fair contract of under $1.5 million USD AND with the right local promotion, they can break even over time. All they need is a foothold — a second market, and Sapp might provide that early. Coker has padded the first Tacoma Dome show with Seattle Team Alliance member and MMA pioneer Maurice Smith. Five years from now, if Coker has two successful territories in San Jose and Seattle, no one is going to remember the money he gave to Sapp to get into the market.
If Sapp could conquer an island of 127 million, than the growling-faced fighter/entertainer certainly has a chance at being successful in a city of under one million. Maybe Sapp can be an entertainer and a fighter in the U.S. too. Kimbo Slice is doing it. Tito Ortiz does it. In fact, there’s definitely money in Kimbo vs Sapp a year from now. I’ll say this:
I’m not laughing at Coker or Sapp anymore.
E-mail John Philapavage at johnnyp@mmaopinion.com.
Topics: All Topics, John Philapavage, MMA, StrikeForce | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Eddie Bravo’s move “Carny” was my security code: lol, my favorite move, although I can not figure out how it will ever work in a match!
This guy needs to use the word “than” instead of then, because his article does not make sense, although it is a really good article!
Sapp needs to join TNA and have a series of wrestling matches with Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe. Sapp time would sweep the country like Hulk-A-Mania did in the 80’s. This would be the perfect fit for him, he could still have fights in Japan.
Than-then has always been a weakness of mine. I’m just happy to be pretty good with Their-There-They’re these days. Thanks for the compliments, and I believe I got the then-than problem fixed.
“You haven’t lived until you’ve witnessed Sapp somehow winning the most famous kickboxing tournament in the world”
When did he do this?
He can’t be costing that much if he’s willing to do those smaller shows in Holland.
He didn’t (it was an error by the author).
Sapp beat Hoost twice (October ‘02 at Saitama Super Arena) and then the Tokyo Dome fight in the 1st round of the GP (where Kakuda stopped it controversially). Sapp quit after the fight due to what was stated as a broken hand (if I remember correctly). Hoost went on to win that tournament the same night if I’m not mistaken.
Zach,
That is exactly what happened. I saw those fights (Sapp vs. Hoost II and Hoost vs. Le Banner which was the finals) about six dozen times on ESPN2. I remember they showed sapp’s hand, and it was all swollen.
Sapp “looks like a crying little girl” because Mirko broke his orbital bone.
Terrible article.
Yeah, I’m not going to knock the effort, but there were some factual burps and the structure left some to be desired.
The Asian American population is huge in the Pacific Northwest but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily interested in MMA. “Asian” is just a geographic denomination. Not all Asians like martial arts (or MMA) just like not all Hispanics like boxing. There are tens of different ethnicities encompassed within that label. Most of the Asian Americans in the NW are second generation or more and it is absurd to expect they will follow the sport (and Bob Sapp) just because of their ethnicity.
Bob Sapp is prominently featured in trailers for next season’s Pros Vs Joes.