I’ve made no secret of my hatred for Brock Lesnar in the past. Partly because of pro wrestling stars that think they can switch over to MMA because they’ve been juicing since birth, but mainly because he’s a giant douche. Anyway, Savage Science is running an interesting piece on Bobby Lashley. Specifically, it’s about Lashley’s ‘freak show’ fight coming up against Bob Sapp on June 27th in Biloxi. Lashley doesn’t draw my wrath like Lesnar for a few reasons. For starters, he’s quietly moved into MMA, unlike Lesnar’s idiot parade. Second, he didn’t run off to the NFL and act like a bitch, like Lesnar’s bitch move against Kansas City’s Damon Huard in 2004. And finally, he doesn’t have a penis-like tattoo slapped on his chest.

I agree with SS that Lashley could be the real deal and is plotting his career smartly. And even though Bob Sapp will likely go down fast, like a hooker for smack, it’ll certainly get Lashley some needed press. The write-up also delves into Sapp’s ‘career’ in MMA including mention of when he cried like a baby after being TKO’d by Cro Cop, but focuses more on his icon status in Japan.

A snippet:

Despite his limited success as a professional fighter, Sapp became a huge pop culture celebrity in Japan. At one point he finished second to then President George W. Bush in a survey of ‘Most Recognizable Americans” and he’s a fixture on television and in commercials. His likeness has appeared on everything from books to CDs to pachinko machines. It’s really hard to think of a comparison to Sapp in current American pop culture—maybe George Foreman at the height of his pitchman days but even his media ubiquity at that time pales in comparison to Sapp.

While he’s no longer considered a ‘serious’ fighter by the Japanese public, he is still a box office draw. In 2002 and 2003 the respected Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Sapp the world’s #1 pro wrestling/MMA box office draw and while his popularity among fight fans has ebbed somewhat he can still put ‘butts in the seats’. Sapp has also spent some time in the ‘worked’ environment of Japanese professional wrestling and briefly held the IWGP title in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Most recently, he’s competed in the HUSTLE pro wrestling promotion (probably the closest Japanese equivalent to the ‘sports entertainment’ of the WWE) and appeared on the K-1/DREAM ‘Dynamite’ show fighting an anime character named ‘Kinniku Mantaro’. In other words, at this point in his career Japanese fight promoters book him very carefully against opponents that can’t expose his many weaknesses.

I knew Sapp was to Japan what David Hasselhoff is to Germany, but second only to George Dubya? Wow, that means Sapp beat out Americans like Sly Stallone, Snoop Dogg, Joe Montana, and the guy that lives in my building who wears his robe backwards. Bottom line is this appears to be a good career move for Lashley instead of rising up too fast in class like, oh, I don’t know, a certain someone tried against Frank Mir.

I’ve seen a handful of MMA fans trying to make a case for Sapp as a serious fighter. Sure he owns a 10-3-1 record, but mostly against the MMA equivalent to last year’s Detroit Lions. Including this loss last year to Jan “The Giant” Nortje:

Yeah. That’ll put asses in the seats.