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K-1 vs. PRIDE vs. Fuji TV vs. Sapp

By Zach Arnold | May 15, 2006

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By Zach Arnold

On Saturday night in Holland, Bob Sapp bolted before his scheduled main event with Ernesto Hoost, causing a major firestorm in front of 17,500 fans at the Amsterdam Arena. Sankei Sports, the newspaper affiliated with Fuji TV (which broadcasted the K-1 event), declared that “Sapp ran away” from the fight and issued a boycott against Hoost. The newspaper quoted matchmaker Sadaharu Tanigawa as saying that Sapp “requested unreasonable demands” right before his fight, and that a possible “banishment” or lawsuit could evolve from his actions. Yomiuri Sports had a reporter quoting the ring announcer at the K-1 show talking about Sapp being cowardly and how he left 30 minutes before the main event.

In a press release issued by K-1, Tanigawa mentioned that Sapp is still under contract with K-1 and cannot leave to another organization.

According to a Japanese source in the fight industry, former K-1 boss (and still a powerful figure in the company) Kazuyoshi Ishii was on hand at the Amsterdam Arena show, and not in jail as some people thought. According to our Japanese source, here is a brief summary of what allegedly took place between Bob Sapp and K-1:

  1. Sapp was rumoredly asking somewhere in between $500,000-$600,000 for the fight against Ernesto Hoost, but K-1 had apparently not agreed to this amount. Some insiders in the Japanese fight industry believe that another company may have made a financial offer to Sapp and that this was what led to the fight reconsideration. (Daily Sports notes that DSE/Hustle and WWE are companies that can pay big money if Sapp leaves K-1). On Tuesday, Nikkan Sports printed a statement from DSE that denied any involvement in the matter.
  2. Sapp refused to fight against Hoost (while sporting bandages) and was admonished (either by K-1 or by K-1 Holland event promoter Simon Rutz)
  3. Sapp took the admonishment seriously enough that he had bodyguards arranged for himself in front of his hotel room (Nikkan Sports on Tuesday said that Sapp brought at least two bodyguards with him to the show)
  4. Sapp was seen arguing with K-1 and promotion staff waving around a piece of paper (the contract). The piece of paper being waved around was apparently a contractual release that would have made him a free agent.
  5. Sapp was taken away to a “safe house” after the argument. Yomiuri Sports newspaper noted that Sapp had an issue with not checking into the hotel room that K-1 had designated for him to be at.

Full disclosure: We have placed phone calls to contacts in Seattle to try to find out more about the story, but no success. We did get a hold of one source, but they did not know any details about the situation.

Influential blogger Black Eye has a list of four theories about what he thinks might have happened:

  1. A contract or visa problem
  2. DSE or another promotion made an offer and Sapp is heading elsewhere.
  3. Sapp became scared of fighting Hoost and ran away.
  4. Sapp was caught doping.

On Tuesday, it was reported in Nikkan Sports that matchmaker Sadaharu Tanigawa would start imposing financial penalties on Sapp if he worked for any other promotion. Tanigawa claimed that Sapp has more than two years left on his K-1 contract, and that any time Sapp works for another promotion, he will have to pay a penalty of 100 million yen (close to $1 million USD) per fight. K-1 noted that all legal discussions are taking place via lawyers at the moment.

Despite the magnitude of this incident, it leads to a much more powerful situation regarding PRIDE, K-1, and Fuji TV (with producer Kunio Kiyohara calling the shots). In the much-talked about yakuza scandal, Kiyohara’s name has been clearly associated with his closeness to DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara. K-1 has had an off-again, on-again relationship with Kiyohara and the K-1 promotion has found TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) to be a willing partner for their bigger television shows. In the past, there have been stories of political problems between Kazuyoshi Ishii and Kunio Kiyohara.

Shukan Gendai: PRIDE & Kiyohara (Fuji TV) try to stop Sakuraba from leaving DSE

In a short article in this week’s edition of Shukan Gendai, the magazine talks about Kazushi Sakuraba leaving PRIDE because they claim that he has been concerned with what has been going on in PRIDE for a long time. Second, the magazine states that Sakuraba was getting a few million yen per fight appearance (while putting himself at physical risk), whereas contemporaries like Hidehiko Yoshida and Naoya Ogawa were taking giant paydays on New Year’s Eve. (Editor’s note — While I do believe it is true that Sakuraba was getting paid less fight money than Yoshida and Ogawa, I do not believe that it was just “a few million yen” per fight.)

The magazine notes that Kunio Kiyohara apparently called Kazuyoshi Ishii to complain about Sakuraba leaving PRIDE and tried to stop Sakuraba from showing up at the HERO’s 5/3 Tokyo, Yoyogi National Stadium Gym I event. Gendai claims that Kiyohara/PRIDE even tried sending a car to block Sakuraba’s driveway on the day of the HERO’s show in an attempt to actually stop him from going. The magazine claims that Ishii responded to Kiyohara’s complaints by stating, “I thought that you and Fuji TV had nothing to do with fighter contracts, and you didn’t take any action when K-1 fighters left for PRIDE. Has your policy changed?” Gendai says Kiyohara didn’t answer this question.

Update: Today’s Asahi Shimbun has an article about Sakuraba’s transfer from PRIDE to K-1 and what kind of impact it will have in the future.

Topics: All Topics, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

15 Responses to “K-1 vs. PRIDE vs. Fuji TV vs. Sapp”

  1. Chuck says:

    What the fuck?! The fight industry in Japan is so fucked up right now. Bob Sapp doping? I won’t doubt it, but I bet it was theory number two which is more feasible (DSE making a deal to him). And why the fuck is Ishii still being mentioned in anything? Oh wait, sorry, I just read why. But still. I haven’t heard that name in damn near two years. And don’t you think Sapp is pretty much damaged goods anymore? If you can even consider him ‘good’.

  2. Chris says:

    This Bob Sapp situation reminds me of the Brock Lesnar situation around Wrestlemania 20. Obviously there are different circumstances surrounding both, but both feel the same.

    As for the reason Sapp left. IMO, he got a better offer from DSE and wanted to renegotiate how much money he was getting paid at the last minute on purpose. When K-1 wouldn’t budge, he simply walked away.

  3. liger05 says:

    Sapp is a joker. How can u do that so close to a fight. It’s wrong and I hope K-1 has a water tight contract which means Sapp cant go anywhere.

  4. keith champagne says:

    I would suspect that DSE made a big offer in retaliation for K1/heros stealing Sakuraba. Quid pro quo…

  5. Zach Arnold says:

    [I would suspect that DSE made a big offer in retaliation for K1/heros stealing Sakuraba. Quid pro quo…]

    The only way that theory works, given that Sapp is under long-term contract, is that they (if you believe such a conspiracy theory) offered him a deal, he wanted out, did the walkout, and knows that there’s no way out of the deal unless it’s quitting permanently. At best, under this conspiracy theory, DSE did this simply to annoy K-1 and irritate them as revenge. That would be the only benefit of this tactic.

  6. Tradition Rules says:

    That is EXACTLY what I was thinking Keith.

    But it doesn’t make Sapp any less a piece of shit for trying to screw over a company that was giving him moster paydays. I understand that is was prbably a “business decisiob” but show SOME level of loyalty or at least respect to them.

    T.R!

  7. Alex Kobashi says:

    What a waste, personally i was looking forward to the match. But it could be that there is stil some shady dealings involving the fight industry that probably lead Sapp to try and take advantage of. His own greed probably lead him to try and get more money out of a delicate situation and look what happened. I would hate the fact that WWE would try to get Sapp.

  8. HijoDelOso says:

    This latest installment in the Japanese craziness leads me to think a reality show about the fight industry in Japan could be hilariously insane. Beat Kitano should be the host.

  9. BlackBabyJesus says:

    You know there’s something seriously f’d up with this sport when people have to stay at a “safe house.” I mean I’ve heard that term used in spy and mob movies before.

    And if someone like Bob Sapp needs bodyguards, well who exactly is a man that large scared of?

  10. Brashleyholland says:

    BlackBabyJesus…He’s scarred of Hoost! 😛

  11. Wayne P says:

    I keep asking is it possible that Sapp would be interested in WWE. I guess the answer is simple. Sure he might be Interested. If WWE offered him a leading role in one of their upcoming films. They could offer him some semi realistic matches with Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin and if they ever rehired Brock Lesnar a semi realistic match with him could sell many PPV buys. WWE could offer him some entertainment matchups with Triple H, Kane and Batista.

  12. Zach Arnold says:

    That sure came out of left field.

  13. […] The pressure on K-1 has just picked up. Bob Sapp’s side of the story about the K-1 Amsterdam fiasco has been relayed on the MMA Ring Report web site. Compare this report to what the Japanese have been claiming and what Simon Rutz is claiming. […]

  14. […] to face Ernesto Hoost but he pulled out of the fight only hours before its start after some heavy trouble with FEG/Simon Rutz. Peter Aerts who was only there to watch the event borrowed Semmy […]

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