Bob Sapp to fight anime character in Japan on New Year's Eve (http://mmajunkie.com/news/13543/bob-sapp-to-fight-anime-character-in-japan-on-new-years-eve.mma)

In one of the strangest bout announcements in recent memory, K-1 has announced that the larger-than-life Bob Sapp (9-3-1) has agreed to face Japanese anime character Kinniku Mantaro.

Or rather Japanese wrestling standout Akihito Tanaka (0-0) wearing a Kinniku Mantaro mask.

The bout will take place at the year-ending FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008 event at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The 350-pound Sapp was last in action in February. The 36-year-old suffered a 55-second TKO loss to Jan Nortje while fighting under the Strikeforce banner.

Sapp has been a staple of the Japanese MMA scene since his debut in 2002. Having competed for PRIDE and K-1, the bout with Mantaro/Tanaka will be Sapp's fourth appearance on a New Year's Eve card.

Tanaka is a seven-time All-Japan Wrestling champion. Despite the odd choice of a representing an anime character in his MMA debut, Tanaka is considered a legitimate heavyweight prospect.

While additional bouts are expected to be announced, the current official card for the event includes:

* "Kinniku Mantaro" vs. Bob Sapp
* Hong Man Choi vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic
* Daisuke Nakamura vs. Hideo Tokoro
* Artur Kyshenko vs. Yoshihiro Sato*
* Semmy Schilt vs. Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga
* Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki
* Mark Hunt vs. Jerome Le Banner
* Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
* Gesias "JZ" Calvancante vs. Joachim Hansen
* Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kozo Takeda*
* Gegard Mousasi vs. Musashi*
* Hiroya vs. Shimada Shota*
* Kusakabe Ryuya vs. Urabe Koya*

* - Fight will be conducted under K-1 rules

Updated Card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite!!_2008)

MMA bouts

* Featherweight bouts:

Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura

* Lightweight bouts:

Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante
Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki

* Middleweight bouts:

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Hayato Sakurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Andy Ologun

* Heavyweight bouts:

Mighty Mo vs. Semmy Schilt
Mark Hunt vs. Jerome Le Banner
Mirko Filipović vs. Korea Hong Man Choi
Bob Sapp vs. Akihito Tanaka

K-1 bouts

* Lightweight bouts:

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kozo Takeda
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko

* Middleweight bouts:

Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi

* Heavyweight bouts:

Alistair Overeem vs. Badr Hari

K-1 Under 18 Tournament

* Semi-final bouts

Hiroya vs. Shota Shimada
Ryuya vs. Koya Urabe

* Final

Hiroya/Shimada vs. Ryuya/Urabe

Akihito Tanaka shows up on Boxrec as an 0-3(2)-1 Professional boxer, same guy?

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=287452&cat=boxer

PS: One of the best cards ever IMO.

Akihito Tanaka shows up on Boxrec as an 0-3(2)-1 Professional boxer, same guy?

http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=287452&cat=boxer

PS: One of the best cards ever IMO.

Cro Cop should be fighting Overeem again but aside from that its a great card

it's a great card which makes me even more pissed off that they're having this Sapp anime bull****- a headliner on top of that!!! that's gotta be the dumbest ****ing thing ever in the history of mma.

If it wasn't enough with the guy a 0-0 record and to be fighting bob sap how the hell are they headlining over Mirco and Choi. I whatched the choi sapp fight today on you tube that dude is huge. Then I whatched Fedor get submit him (choi) with an arm bar.

Kinniku Mantaro via Muscle Millennium.

I used to love that cartoon.

The person under the mask is a protege of Sakuraba, and is a 7 time all-japan amateur wrestler. He's going to beat Bob Sapp.

it's a great card which makes me even more pissed off that they're having this Sapp anime bull****- a headliner on top of that!!! that's gotta be the dumbest ****ing thing ever in the history of mma.

We're talking about Tanagawa/Ishii here. They thought putting a muay Thai fighter against a pro wrestler with no formal training was a good idea.

How the **** will that guy even be able to see with that mask on?

So the guy is actually going to fight with the mask on? How would that even be legal. Also this kinda pisses me off. It's already bad enough with some of the moron people I live and work around now saying ufc and such is just another form of sports entertainment/WWE and such and now we get some of the wwe superstars trying to start a career (Lesnar and Lashley) /oh and if they got the skills by all means I support them so im not bashing just using them as examples/ and now this guy with a mask on. Thank god it's over in Japan and not on a more popular UFC. If I misunderstood or he isn't wearing the mask that is cool but if he is wtf?

You've never seen Dos Caras Jr. then?

Mark Hunt vs Jerome Le Banner...

yummy

You've never seen Dos Caras Jr. then?

I knew someone would mention him. LOL at his fight against Crocop
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I knew someone would mention him. LOL at his fight against Crocop
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Yeah. That match was built on coolness factor alone. Dos was doing pretty well for himself in DEEP and he was coming from a pretty good resume being part of the defuct Mexican Olympic Wrestling team.

Mark Hunt vs Jerome Le Banner...

yummy

Can't wait to see this ****, MMA rules as well.

How the **** will that guy even be able to see with that mask on?

Through the holes.

I hope the ufc don't let them start wearing them. Not only do they look rediculous but the fuctionality deff isn't there for an emergency. The reff was trying to get it off of his head just so he could remove the mouth piece.

I hope the ufc don't let them start wearing them. Not only do they look rediculous but the fuctionality deff isn't there for an emergency. The reff was trying to get it off of his head just so he could remove the mouth piece.

They won't, because they can't. We have athletic commissions that govern the sport in the US. In Japan, the organizations govern themselves. The Japanese are weirdos, so they do weird things.

You have organizations like Shooto and Pancrase that are actually based on the pure sport and rankings, and then you have organizations like Pride and Dream which have crazy matchups along with their great matches.

Have you ever seen Shooto or Pancrase?

http://www.themmapost.com/2008/11/10-shooto-fights-you-need-to-watch-with.html

Yeah they won't start using them. This is just a little pro-wrestling thing that the Japanese love to do. It gets over very well because pro-wrestling is still very well respected.

Bob Sapp and Kimbo Slice should fight

They won't, because they can't. We have athletic commissions that govern the sport in the US. In Japan, the organizations govern themselves. The Japanese are weirdos, so they do weird things.

You have organizations like Shooto and Pancrase that are actually based on the pure sport and rankings, and then you have organizations like Pride and Dream which have crazy matchups along with their great matches.

Have you ever seen Shooto or Pancrase?

http://www.themmapost.com/2008/11/10-shooto-fights-you-need-to-watch-with.htmlNo I haven't whatched those type of fights except for a few on youtube. I don't have dsl at my house. Still not available out in the sticks lol. So if it aint on dish satellite and not ppv ( have to save my money for the good fights) then I don't much get to see/get exposed to such fights. I would like to thank all of you guys for posting the links and vids for us on here due to my limited time on the dsl here it helps me not have to find most of them myself. Oh and I'll look up more of the vids and stuff just to get better aquainted with more fighters. I don't even have showtime at the house wich keeps me from whatching most of the pride and elite xc events and such. I have hbo and starz guess i need to trade starz for showtime. But for the rest of the bunch at the house starz is a better movie channel and thats what there into.

the fight card posted on page 1 while accurate isn't entirely true

all the *'s that indicate fights being under K-1 rules are not true

for one thing the Cro Cop/Hong Man bout isn't being fought under K-1 rules, it's a MMA bout

check the site, fights keep getting added to the card

http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/top884.htm

disregard the * comment .. * after fighter names to list if it's a K-1 bout or not

still though to anyone who wants a good visual of the entire fight card click link anyway

Updated Card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite!!_2008)

MMA bouts

* Featherweight bouts:

Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura

* Lightweight bouts:

Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante
Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki

* Middleweight bouts:

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Hayato Sakurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Andy Ologun

* Heavyweight bouts:

Mighty Mo vs. Semmy Schilt
Mark Hunt vs. Jerome Le Banner
Mirko Filipović vs. Korea Hong Man Choi
Bob Sapp vs. Akihito Tanaka

K-1 bouts

* Lightweight bouts:

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kozo Takeda
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko

* Middleweight bouts:

Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi

* Heavyweight bouts:

Alistair Overeem vs. Badr Hari

K-1 Under 18 Tournament

* Semi-final bouts

Hiroya vs. Shota Shimada
Ryuya vs. Koya Urabe

* Final

Hiroya/Shimada vs. Ryuya/Urabe

o wow that Hari vs Overeem bout is official? cool

I've seen that as a rumor circling around the K-1 s-dog boards .. didn't know that it was made official .. and I've yet to see it on the K-1 site for what it's worth

still pretty interesting.

for those who dunno about Badr Hari .. he's the K-1 Heavyweight Champion (max weight limit of 220 pounds) and a finalist in this years Grand Prix Final

however

Hari was disqualified in the finals vs Remy Bonjasky and a result of the DQ lost not only his fight pay day for the evening

but was additionally stripped of his Heavyweight Belt + no longer acknowledged as the runner up to the Grand Prix Final

hari/overeem should be MMA rules to punish Badr for the **** he pulled at the WGP IMO

is Hari/Overeem even official?

the above link on page 3 in this topic is the ONLY place I've seen the fight listed.

okay what the heck is going on here ...

**sher dog + Wikipedia & even the Japanese K-1 link via Wikipedia all list the Hari/Overeem bout as being on .. under K-1 rules

yet the American K-1 site still has no mention of Hari vs Overeem

I think it's completely ridiculous that FEG is allowing Hari to fight. But then again, they are the most crooked combat sporting corporation I know of. I refuse to support them in any way, I will be downloading the fights I care about.


Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura
Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante
Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko
Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi

I'm looking forward to these, a lot. IMO Tokoro/Nakamura will end up being FOTN on the MMA side, and Sato/Kyshenko (the rightful K-1 MAX WGP Final match) will be the FOTN on the K-1 side.

well keep in mind Hari was stripped of his Heavyweight title. in addition to getting his pay for the Grand Prix final taken away.

and if those 2 penalties weren't enough (losing payday + Heavyweight title) on top of all that

Badr Hari isn't recognized as the runner up to the 2008 Grand Prix

to suspend him IMO would be a bit excessive.

taking away Badr's payday + title = lesson learned and if Badr Hari were to repeat his actions ... then he'd be an idiot to do so

considering all that's happened to him without a suspension.

**I can't say I really know many of the names on the card aside from the big ones ie Schilt, Sapp, Crocop, Sakuraba, Hong Man Choi, and Alvarez

since I haven't caught much of DREAM

but I still look forward to the event.

well keep in mind Hari was stripped of his Heavyweight title. in addition to getting his pay for the Grand Prix final taken away.

and if those 2 penalties weren't enough (losing payday + Heavyweight title) on top of all that

Badr Hari isn't recognized as the runner up to the 2008 Grand Prix

to suspend him IMO would be a bit excessive.

taking away Badr's payday + title = lesson learned and if Badr Hari were to repeat his actions ... then he'd be an idiot to do so

considering all that's happened to him without a suspension.

**I can't say I really know many of the names on the card aside from the big ones ie Schilt, Sapp, Crocop, Sakuraba, Hong Man Choi, and Alvarez

since I haven't caught much of DREAM

but I still look forward to the event.

He stomped on someones face.

If the fight was in the U.S. under commissioned rules, he would be suspended for quite a while, if not banned.

WOW... the undercard is pretty impressive

He stomped on someones face.

If the fight was in the U.S. under commissioned rules, he would be suspended for quite a while, if not banned.

I know what he did, I saw it as it was going on (oppose to youtube after).

**and while a very poor thing to do on Hari's part I think the stomp is a tad over blown in some cases

keep in mind the ref did pull Hari back as he threw the stomp ... certainly taking some of the impact away.

I mean it's not like Remy got his neck f*cked up

and even the American commentators though Remy was acting a bit

however

What Hari did is worthy of an instant DQ IMO and obviously against the rules.

Hari not being suspended has more to do with him being a big name then anything

I wouldn't complain about it if Badr Hari did get suspended

but he got his payday taken away, and the embarrassment of not being acknowledged as the runner up

so hopefully he doesn't pull crap like this again

because potentially a stomp to the head could be more dangerous.

***going back to your quote yeah your prob right, I mean wow the ref was pulling Hari away and Badr still managed to get a stomp in ... and keep in mind before the stomp Hari was throwing punches to a grounded opponent, which in addition to the stomp is another violation.

hitting grounded opponent, not breaking in action, and stomping on opponent ... 3 fouls and no suspension

Badr Hari probably did get off easy.