"You know I'm going straight at him and he's going to have to get me down. I'm going to be low enough so if he wants to come head to head with me, we're going to clash heads. So if I'm going down, just as he is going down, I'm throwing punches, period! So if he wants to get down and my hand is coming down and it cracks him in the top of his knot, then he's going to go down," stated MMA goliath Bob Sapp as he spoke more about his upcoming clash with Bobby Lashley and much more. Check it out!
PC: How has everything been going bro?
BS: Everything is great. The movies are going great. I have a movie that we just released lat month called "Big Stan" with Rob Schneider and you can see me get beat up by Rob Schneider. My next movie will be released on May 5th called Frankenhood with Charlie Murphy, so you can watch that and laugh a little bit. You can see me act stupid, although my friends say it's not an act (laughing).
PC: You have a lot going on my man. How do you find time for the movies, fighting and everything else going on?
BS: You definitely learn how to not only manage fights, but manage time. What I do is I get up at about 6:00 and start working out. If I don't have anything going on, I may get up at 9:00 or 10:00. I get about 3 hours of conditioning in. I'll eat and rest for an hour and a half and then it's back to everything, from press interviews to getting ready to sign some sponsorship deals. Then my next training will start at 6:00, my time, and then that goes to 9:00 or 10:00. It depends on what we're training on. Right after that, I go home and eat and I get another 2 hours of rest time, but you have to remember, I'm employed in Japan; that's when my day really starts. So I gotta be on the phone and going back and forth with emails. And of course sometimes there needs to be translation so that takes a bit longer when we're talking about what I'm going to do and my plans and overseas schedule and stuff like that. That can take anywhere from an hour to 5 hours. I usually train right after my movie roles are over, but it's really difficult to do the fighting and commercials and things like that. I do find time to get them done and sometimes you see I can have a lackluster performance when I'm doing too many things; especially in the ring. So I pay for it in more ways than one when my training camp gets behind because the entertainment industry is keeping me busy.
PC: June 27th you will be fighting Bobby Lashley at Ultimate Chaos. Are you somewhat surprised he's picked you as an opponent for only his 3rd or 4th MMA fight?
BS: Yeah, I actually am. It says a lot about Bobby and what he's here to do. He wants to be recognized and he wants to be known so he's really stepping into it. I'm extremely shocked by it. I think what he's doing is wanting to show people he's got some power and some ability and he's learning really fast, at a fast rate, because one thing we know for sure, it's 99.9% true that somebody's getting knocked out or submitted. We pretty much know the Beast ain't going three rounds (laughing). We're guaranteed to have a fight on our hands here. This is great! I was just as shocked as everybody else. It's like, wow! I've pulled some shockers though, although I was 380 at the time, but I went into kickboxing with relatively no experience and was able to get me a world championship real quick.
PC: He won't have to fight too many guys that will be bigger than him, but he will in June. Do you think that's one of your advantages; that he will be staring at someone larger than him in the cage?
BS: Yeah, I think so. I think what you're going to see is Bobby planning on doing a lot of wrestling and holding down. One of the things that hurts wrestlers, in particular, with fighting, because fighting is very different than wrestling
some of the wrestlers can come through and be successful, but if you look at the fighters that have had a ton of success in fighting, many of them had very little wrestling experience, if any at all. That's why you get a fight like Bobby's last one against Jason Guida. A lot of people are like, "Well, how can he be this strong and not finish this guy?" Because he's still doing the wrestling and in his brain, once he gets on top of the guy, it's like he's pinned. But nah, you can hold me down and pin me all you want to; this is fighting brother. We gotta get up and throw some thangs down. We gotta throw some blows. It's a very different sport and I think that's what you're going to see is his wrestling ability. No doubt about it, he is a better wrestler than I ever will be, but this is fighting and a big time difference in the arena.
PC: How do you plan on dealing with his takedowns?
BS: We always have a plan until you get in there. You know I'm going straight at him and he's going to have to get me down. I'm going to be low enough so if he wants to come head to head with me, we're going to clash heads. So if I'm going down, just as he is going down, I'm throwing punches, period! So if he wants to get down and my hand is coming down and it cracks him in the top of his knot, then he's going to go down. That's just what happens. There are a lot of things that can happen when you go down to secure a takedown. Wrestlers are very good at taking their opponents down, but as far as fighting, that's a different story. We gotta throw some things. I think there is a standup rule if it gets kind of boring. They don't want to see too much wrestling in there, so they'll just stand us up, no worries!
PC: You've pretty much made your living fighting in Japan. What is the biggest difference when you do come to fight in the States?
BS: The biggest difference that I see is the fans and what the fighters in America look for opposed to overseas. Overseas, they look for you to fight. What that means is you are continuously fighting. You're not just going in there for the win. Some of my fights, you see I just bull rush guys and go right at them and bang; knock me right out like Mirko, he cracked my eye socket. If you saw that fight, I was going right at him and then it was like, "Bang, what the hell!" That's what we are going for. They always used to say, "Just go in there and fight. We could care less if you win or lose. You get paid the same amount. You go in there and you go straight at them." And that's how it was. If you get knocked down, you get up. If you look at some of my first fights, like when I was going against Ernesto Hoost, he's kicking and kicking and I almost go down and I'm like, "You know what? Stay up and go through all of this pain and stuff and keep going." No matter what, they really want you to keep going. Here in the US, a lot of fighters just go for the win. Most of the fighters go for the win because they think it's all about the record. You may get somebody to throw one punch and then run away for the rest of that round. The next round, they'll throw one punch and then take you down and hold you and just hold you. We've had some fighters like that come over to Japan and I'm going to tell you, they won, but then you never heard from them again because nobody would hire them. They were just very boring. 15 minutes is a long time to just lay on somebody. It was boring, but they would win because they hit the guy a couple of times and then just held them down.
That's one difference and the other big difference is the fans. The fans in Japan love you for putting on a fight and the fans here in America
ah, they aren't so nice. The internet accounts for a very small amount, but they want to do a lot of bashing and trashing of fighters. These are people that have basically no fighting experience at all. They just sit back and try to outdo each other and see who can type the worst things about fighters. This is part of the fighting game and that's one of the things Bobby will be getting used to the further he gets into this. The styles of fighting are different in America. I've been fighting primarily in a ring and over here, they fight in a cage. We'll never have a cage over in Japan unless the UFC come over there. We don't do the cage.
PC: I know you've fought in a cage before, but not very often. Will that be a major adjustment for you?
BS: It will be some adjustments. The cage is a little bit bigger. I'm used to fighting in a smaller place. I fought in a cage over here in Washington and of course the results to that was no good, although I went into that with a majorly pulled hamstring from doing Pros vs. Joes. It's a very big deal for me. I have to get used to the larger arena. One of the great things about it is when wrestlers come in for a takedown, you're in a small spot anyways. They're just coming into my game. I think he will try to use his strengths and have little standup with me.
PC: You've fought Nog, LeBanner, Hoost and Cro Cop, some of the best fighters out there. How long do you think it will take for you to show Lashley that he may be in over his head?
BS: I think one thing you're going to see is I'm going straight at him, so as fast as it takes me to get over there. I think within about one or two punches, he's going to realize this is a big difference. This is a major step up. These guys on the internet or wherever have no idea of what my schedule is and they're thinking, "Look, he's fought these guys," talking about all of the guys you just named, but I fought those guys within a month of each other. I fought some guys twice in the month. The schedule is very different. But I think what I'm bringing over to Mississippi and Prize Fight Promotions is that I'm going to show them this is exactly what goes on here in Japan. Even after my fight with Nortje, even though I lost, I was on a plane the next day to go back to Japan to do my pro wrestling performance, then back to Korea to do another pro wrestling performance and then came back and got ready for a fight in Japan, so it never stops. It's absolutely amazing on how all of this works. Getting used to this type of schedule gets your endurance up (laughing). I'm used to the jet lag, but it plays a factor. For this fight, I was fortunate enough to talk to the promoter, Brain Young, and one of the things that he said was that we would set up the days for the press and keep it down and we'll come in and do it on certain days of the week, so my schedule can lighten up a little bit.
PC: I'm sure we'll speak again very shortly; definitely before June. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
BS: I tell you what, tell Lashley to bring it because he knows for a fact that I'm going to bring it. He better get in the best shape possible because you always gotta watch out for that overhand right because it comes down and it's not light!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]