Bob Sapp pt 2 – The Sandman Has His Say

Bob Sapp pt 2 – The Sandman Has His Say

Published on May 29, 2012 by The Sandman in Opinion

Bob Sapp Affects the Image of Asian MMA

I know the Editor has already written about Bob Sapp’s infamous interview on the MMA Hour but The Sandman wants to throw his own two cents on cyberspace (yes, I referred to myself in the third person).

I was watching live as Bob Sapp lost the little dignity he had left when on the show (The MMA Hour) with Helwani referring to his one win in Sapp’s last 11 fights as “a glitch in the matrix”. I wasn’t surprised that Sapp was happy to just take the money and give up early in fight. I was surprised however, that he was honest about throwing those fight.

Maybe, ‘throwing’ is the wrong word. That would insinuate that he was paid to lose fights. He was paid to show up for fights. Losing those fights wasn’t a stipulation in his contract; Sapp made that decision all by himself.

Sapp’s admittance has tarnished the image of Asian MMA; directly affecting the two major Asian promotions he fought at – ONE FC and Super Fight League (SFL) and of course ONE FC network member Australia’s Cage Fighting Championship (CFC).

Sure, one can say that these promotions are not aiming to impress North American MMA fans who watch UFC and…umm, UFC. But isn’t the goal of any ambitious promotion world domination? To be a successful promotion one needs to tap into North American market.

I’m sure neither ONE FC nor SFL have a lot of interest in North America right now but for the casual MMA follower in North America, they’ll know very little of these promotions. These promotions will be remembered (for the time being at least) for paying Bob Sapp to ‘give up’.

Ariel Helwani said it himself, “I don’t blame Bob Sapp. I blame the organizations who continue to pay him”. He also showed a highlight (or lowlight) of Sapp’s last 10 fights including the Rolles Gracie and James Thompson fights (he mentioned specifically the Thompson fight).

I’m surprised by the lack of PR work that ONE FC and SFL have done to fix their ‘image’ but I guess ignorance is bliss in this case. Both these promotions will now have to work hard to show that the former stars of North American promotions (Roger Huerta at ONE FC for example) are not just coming to Asia for a big pay-day before they retire.

C’mon PR guys. Let’s not let Asian MMA look like retirement homes.