Not Andy Garcia

The cook at one of my favorite restaurants, Fort St. George, would always be playing these fight videos while I was on lunch last summer. It was Pride fighting. The biggest MMA organization in the world. UFC doesn't cover the extremity of Pride fighting from Japan. They allow elbows to the head, knees and kicks to the head while on the ground. They have hardcore fighting simply because Japan does not ban certain things that we normally would. As a result raw fighters come out from places like Croatia, Russia, Brazil, and even Holland. K-1 is still big there, but Pride has definitely taken over. In some instances fighters are comedic characters in an effort to combine WWF with extreme fighting. Cheap promotion money has no shame.

One of the more amazing fighters to come out from over the last few years was Bob Sapp - The Beast. (from wikipedia) Sapp began his athletic career in college football as a standout offensive lineman for the University of Washington, where he won the Morris Award. Expected by some to get high notice from pro scouts in the 1997 NFL draft, he slipped to the third round before being chosen by the Chicago Bears at 69th overall. Although Sapp was under pro contract for the next four seasons (with four different teams, each of which cut him within that season), he appeared in only one regular season game before failing many steroid tests and washing out of the league.

The fights that I've seen from him are pretty funny, underneath where it lists fighting style, for him it reads: NFL, as opposed to Pro Wrestling or Judo. Sometimes Sapp would even start off in a lineman crouch and then start rushing. Mike Tyson was provoked by Sapp after a fight. There was an official fight slated for them but it didn't happen since Tyson had a rape charge in Japan. Sapp kind of fell off the track the last couple of years. Last rumor I heard he was hiding out in Rainier Valley convalescing.


FIGHT HIGHLIGHT LINK