(Sapp’s most recent effort attempt ”showing” against James Thompson. How do you know it’s a Bob Sapp joint? Because the introductions are twice as long as the fight.)
In the difficult economic times that we are currently experiencing, Bob Sapp’s continual ability to stay employed as a “fighter” is nothing short of inspiring. And by inspiring, we mean infuriating. The man has fought nine times in the past three years, totaling just over fifteen minutes of ring time. There is not a doubt in any of our minds that the time he spent training for those fights was less than half of that. He has lost all but one of those contests, and word has it that the one man he defeated committed Sepukku shortly thereafter. Yet he continues to get work. He lost his last fight by submission due to (fake) leg injury, and tapped out to approximately two punches thrown by a BJJ expert in the fight before that. Yet he continues to get work.
Perhaps it is a sign, like the popularity of Jersey Shore or Nicki Minaj, that our culture has truly done a 180 in terms of what we consider worthy of our attention. Where in days past, it was a person’s abilities that brought them into the public eye, it seems now more than ever that we as a society are fixated with people who lack any discernable talent whatsoever.
Bob Sapp is living, breathing proof of this phenomenon.
Thankfully, it looks as if Sapp may finally be forced to take on a fighter who could make him reconsider his line of work altogether; someone who could possibly knock Sapp out cold before he gets the chance to call it quits. That man is none other than UFC veteran Soa Palelei, who is scheduled to take on Sapp at Cage Fighting Championships 21 on April 20th.
If there is a God, he will not allow Bob Sapp to walk away from this fight completely intact.
Since being bounced from the UFC following a third round TKO loss to Eddie Sanchez at UFC 79, Palelei has gone 7-1 and is currently riding a five fight win streak, with all of those victories coming by way of first round (T)KO. The last fight of Palelei’s we reported on was a brutal 28 second KO of Son Hai Suk at the AFC event that saw Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard submit TUF 7 finalist Jesse Taylor via second round heel hook.
One interesting fact heading into his fight with Sapp is that Palelei is expected to square off against 3-0 slugger Joe Kielur just six days beforehand. Let’s hope he doesn’t injure himself and is able to deliver the just beating Sapp truly deserves.
Also scheduled to throw down at CFC 21 are respectable MMA veterans Jeff Monson and Jim York. Monson was recently able to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Fedor Emilianenko back in November with a decision victory of his own over Alexey Oleinik just ten days ago. York, a Sengoku and KOTC veteran, has not fought since scoring a first round TKO over Lucas Browne in November of 2010.
No other bouts are scheduled for CFC 21 as of this moment. Now here’s a video of Bob Sapp getting rag-dolled by a man one-third his size.
Amen.
-J. Jones