History Wrestling / BobSapp

* ForWantOfANail: Had Minotauro Nogueira been a bit less tough, he would have been hospitalized or something worse at multiple instances of his fight against Sapp. It is already incredible that the affair didn't end (probably tragically) after the first ganso bomb.

Robert Malcolm Sapp (born September 22, 1973 in Colorado Springs, Colorado) is an American {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, [[UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} Kickboxer]] and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter. An immensely huge guy, Sapp started as a football player, but he achieved little there, so he went to train in professional wrestling at the Wrestling/WorldChampionshipWrestling Power Plant before theclosure of the company. With seemingly nowhere else to go but to back Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside, he gained a few victories in the lower mid card as "The Beast" before [[TheWorfEffect being used to put over]] Omem. However, his fate would change radically upon being scouted by Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1 after a toughman contest. Through his charisma, physique and an insane amount of smart protection by K-1, Sapp became a wild star in Japan, competing both in kickboxing and MMA and winning incredible upsets over veterans of the sports like Ernesto Hoost and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura, in no small part thanks to his overwhelming size. He got so popular that was featured in TV, films, commercials and all kind of merchandising, and of course pro wrestling, becoming the highest paid mixed martial arts fighter at his peak as well as the first and only black guy to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. He also competed in the fabulous Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE and became Heavyweight Champion in the Korean version of the World Wrestling Association. His boom lasted to 2005, a year in which fame caught with him and he slowly became less of a fighter and more as a deliberate tomato can, ending with a career twist which saw him taking dives for money for the next years, needed to pay some medical bills. With a late career filled up with loses and a pocket filled up with millions, he also dabbled in acting and sporadic pro wrestling.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: While in pro wrestling, he adhered to his kickboxing ankle wraps as opposed to regular footwear.

* TheGiant: Was huge, heavy and strong, though he was also '''infinitely''' more charismatic than your average wrestling giant. Oddly, his actual height is about 6ft 4in, which while still tall is not unusually tall for an American (it is for Japanese standards, though). His wing span or reach, however, is as long as someone who is 7' tall, which is about 212cm.

* AngryBlackMan: Of cartoonish proportions. He looked, behaved and fought like a villain of a martial arts manga, which was his main appeal to the Japanese crowds.

->''"Bob Sapp is what ancient Greeks used to protect their mazes. He’s immune to catapults and fire, but he tires quickly."''
-->--'''Creator/{{Seanbaby}}''' on [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-10-most-insane-acts-violence-in-kickboxing-history/ a certain article mentioning Sapp.]]

* UnskilledButStrong: He has become the poster boy for this trope in both kickboxing and mixed martial arts history. Reality is a bit more complex, though: while he certainly only got away with his poor skills due to his cartoonish strength and size, Sapp was very good at using those assets to counter his opponents's technique. Minotauro Nogueira, a UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu wizard, only managed to lock his armbar when Sapp himself conceded it out of fatigue, while Ernesto Hoost, one of the greatest kickboxers ever, was repeatedly bottlenecked by Sapp where the latter could unload all of his strength without worrying about Hoost's famed movement. If Sapp's notably technical performance at the K-1 Hiroshima Grand Prix serves as an indicator, a Bob Sapp who had trained seriously through his entire career might have make it to history books.

* BaldOfAwesome: All his hair is below his ears.

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Sapp The Other Wiki]].

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: While Sapp has many losses, this trope goes more accurately to Hong-man Choi, the other K-1 star superheavyweight. With his skillset and size, he was the only opponent Sapp could not push around, nor outrange, nor overpower, nor outlast in a kickboxing match (though even so, Choi only bested Sapp by a majority decision, meaning his advantages didn't give him a really big edge). Not in MMA, though, as although they never faced off there, Choi was nowhere near the threat Sapp was at it, among other things for being much slower and more cumbersome.

* AxCrazy: Had no qualms about getting fouled or even disqualified in order to boost his character, knowing it would only elevate his stock. In his very first match, he was DQ'ed after pushing Tsuyoshi Nakasako to the ground and hitting him with elbows and stomps. Later, when he was being outworked by the nimble Remy Bonjasky, he opted to push him to the ground and smash his head here, earning a DQ but preserving his beastly aura.

** He vowed to defeat Ernesto Hoost in just three minutes, that is, one round. Impressively, he actually fulfilled his promise. He promised it again in the rematch, but that time Hoost survived to the second round, even if not easily.

** After his pro wrestling match against Hoost in WRESTLE-1, he wanted to turn a rematch into a handicap fight against him and grand sumo champion Wakanohana, and also Hoost's trainer Johan Vos if he dared to make it a 3-on-1. (Yeah, why was Wakanohana included remains unknown.)

* ChallengeSeeker: Sapp liked to challenge every big name he found in his path as PR stunts, regardless of whether he would ever actually fight them or not. The biggest example was Creator/MikeTyson, whom he tried to lure into a K-1 ring, but he also challenged Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} to either a MMA fight or a pro wrestling match. Fedor Emelianenko was another of his challengees, but the Russian humorously replied that he would have to gain 70kg to fight him in equal conditions (though Fedor did fight Zuluzinho, who was bigger and heavier than Sapp).

** In K-1, Sapp often accomplished with dirty tactics what he could not do by fighting clean. It was common for him to push and throw his opponents around to unbalance them, as well as grabbing them by the head with one hand to hold them in place while hitting with the other. Also, if things were really bad for him, he could always disqualify himself out by going fully illegal on them in order to retain his tough guy aura.

* ConfusionFu: His untrained punching style was based on wild hooks, downward hammerfists and random arm blows. This was often unpredictable for classically trained opponents, who did not expect such a crude style of striking to be thrown at them. It had also the factor to be near impossible to block even if his adversaries covered up: with a fighter as ungodly strong as Sapp, any blow was guaranteed to inflict damage. Proof of it is that the rare times he employed a more orthodox offense, he would end up outmatched.

* DavidVersusGoliath: Excepting Wrestling/{{Akebono}}, Stefan Gamlin and Choi Hong-man, as well as Alan Karaev and Osunaarashi, all of his opponents were (much) lighter than Sapp, making them clear Davids to his Goliath.

** Until Sapp's flaws were revealed, his opponents were very wary of engaging him, which was sometimes their very bane, as Tamura and Yamamoto can tell. His reputation was so fearsome that Mirko Cro Cop would reveal years later to have accepted to fight Sapp because no other fighter at the time wanted to do it.
** In more examples, the normally fearless Minotauro Nogueira of all people accepted special rules of no knees on the ground in his fight with Sapp, and he ''totally refused'' when promoters offered him a rematch, even for a bigger payment. Also, although Fedor Emelianenko was clearly joking when he declined to fight Sapp, it was rumored at the time that he really meant his words, as Sapp had enough power to possibly KO anybody with a lucky punch and subsequently ruin his record.

* ForWantOfANail: Had Minotauro Nogueira been a bit less tough, he would have been hospitalized or worse at multiple instances of his fight against Sapp. It is already incredible that the affair didn't end (probably tragically) after the first ganso bomb.

* GayBravado: Some of his promos, entrances and TV appearances involved him draped in feather boas and dancing to Music/{{Madonna}} songs, but nobody dared to doubt his heterosexuality. In fact, the fact that Sapp was basically a ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' character come to life was likely part of his charm.

* TheGiant: Was huge, heavy and strong, though he was also '''infinitely''' more charismatic than your average wrestling giant. Oddly, his actual height is about 6ft 4in, which while still tall is not unusually tall for an American. His wing span or reach, however, is as long as someone who is 7' tall, which is about 212cm.

* GlassCannon: A subversion in which he lacked stamina and psyche rather than durability. Sapp was surprisingly well rounded in a basic sense: he was incredibly fast for his size, large enough to be difficult to harm, and strong enough to power out from holds, and in turn he could inflict massive damage with his crude strikes and force his way to basic submissions. However, he got tired easily and could become skittish towards tough opposition, meaning that his performance started going down with every minute if he failed at finishing his opponent early.

* GroinAttack: Did it sometimes through his career in kickboxing to soften a particularly difficult enemy, knowing that Japanese referees were reluctant to DQ him (and that he would not be punished if they did).

* LetsGetDangerous: His outrageously goofy gimmick ended once Sapp stepped into the ring. Even within the fights themselves, he was occasionally capable of effective comebacks when his opponents had hurt him, as in his rematch with Hoost or his fight with Kimo. It has continued into the jobber version of Sapp of today, as while nowhere near the force of nature he was in his prime, whenever he ends up in the ring with someone unable of hurting him (or someone with even lesser stamina than himself), he will eventually go on the offensive.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: His poor performance against Kimo Leopoldo was the reason Nobuaki Kakuda was banned from refereeing in United States, as everybody could see he was there to help Sapp.

* OhCrap: His sole mass was enough to elicit this reaction from an unprepared opponent, but the truth is that Sapp, not being a well-prepared fighter himself, had some of those whenever he realized his opponent was tougher than he had imagined.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Even although he did not always win, Bob did share the ring with many of the best guys K-1 and PRIDE ever had in their rosters. Could it be more of an uphill battle for someone with no combat background to being thrown into fights with world class guys in his very second match?
* PopularityPower: His duel with Akebono at New Years Eve was the first time ever than a combat sports event got more share than the annual NHK Kohaku music festival.

** Parodied in HUSTLE during his match against Bono-kun, in which several referees were knocked out to save Sapp from a defeat. The first one was used as a HumanShield by Sapp, the second was kidnapped by the Monster Army, and a third one, who was the (in)famous Yuji Shimada, cheated Bob's way to win.

* TopHeavyGuy: A scarily literal real life example. His legs are not small, but his arms and upper torso completely dwarf them.

* UnstoppableRage: The key being to let his own rage tire him out than trying to halt him directly. Akebono, whose conditioning wasn't much better at the time, didn't have such an option.

* WimpFight: His fight against Osunanaarashi saw Sapp hitting a rather tecnically sound feversal throw, but afterwards it became an exchange of short, ineffectual strikes from all positions that has shades of this trope.

** A special example was Mariusz Pudzianowski, who blasted him with a a barrage of punches, took him down with ease and destroyed in roughly a minute and a half. Something of a subversion, as no matter how strong Sapp was he was nowhere near as strong as a former multi-time World's Strongest Man like Pudzianowski.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: While Sapp has many losses, this trope goes more accurately to Hong-man Choi, the other K-1 star superheavyweight. With his skillset and size, he was the only opponent Sapp could not push around, nor outrange, nor overpower, nor outlast in a kickboxing match (though even so, he only bested Sapp by a majority decision, meaning his advantages didn't give him a really big edge). Not in MMA, though, as although they never faced off there, Choi was nowhere near the threat Sapp was at it, among other things for being much slower and more cumbersome.

** During a promo about his possible fight with Mike Tyson, Sapp promised to knock out Tyson with a high kick. It would have been the first time ever Sapp did a high kick.
** After his pro wrestling match against Hoost in WRESTLE-1, he wanted to turn a rematch into a handicap fight against him and grand sumo champion Wakanohana, and also Hoost's trainer Johan Vos if he dared to make it a 3-on-1. (Yeah, why was Wakanohana included in the first place remains unknown.)

* BashBrothers: Mainly teamed up with Wrestling/KeijiMutoh, which is curious given that Mutoh's alter ego Muta was a clear enemy to Sapp.
* TheBerserker: His main tactic both in MMA and kickboxing was the "bullrush", that is, blindly charging towards his opponents while swinging forward his arms in the fashion of wild punches. Combined with a physique like his, the technique allowed Sapp to overwhelm his opponents and land some powerful blows before the adversary could fend him off.

* BigEntrance: This is usual in the bombastic Japanese approach to combat sports, prone to fill up giant arenas with pyrotechnics and cool music, but Bob got some especially memorable ones.

* BrilliantButLazy: Disrespected as he might be today by MMA fans due to his attitude towards his late career, it were many the fighters and trainers who said at Sapp's prime (especially after his fight with Nogueira) that he could have been a force of nature in the ring had he focused seriously in training and learning instead of becoming an entertainer. Part of the fault goes too to his media schedule in Japan, which often allowed him no time to hit the gym between commercials and show appearances.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: As a college football player he had a 600 pound bench press and a 800 pound squat, and his strength did not decrease after he made the jump to combat sports. Now, those numbers are not much for a weighlifter of his size, but they are ''massive'' for a fighter. For good or bad, Sapp is probably one of the strongest men and surely one of the hardest punchers to ever compete in professional fighting.

** Sapp usually did through dirty tactics what he could not do through orthodox fighting at K-1. It was common for him to push and throw his opponents around to unbalance them, as well as grabbing them by the head with one hand to hold them in place while hitting with the other. Also, if things were really bad for him, he could always disqualify himself out by going fully illegal on them in order to retain his tough guy aura.

* ConfusionFu: His untrained punching style was based on wild hooks, downward hammerfists and random arm blows. This was often unpredictable for classically trained opponents, who did not expect such a crude style of striking to be thrown at them. It had also the factor to be near impossible to block even if his adversaries covered up: with a fighter as ungodly strong as Sapp, any blow was guaranteed to inflict damage. This is notable as the rare times he employed a more orthodox offense, he would end up wildly outmatched.

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: When he defeated Hoost not once, but twice. Sapp was also in the receiving end when Wataru Sakata beat him in HUSTLE, choking him out in a tag team match and pinning him in a singles one.

** Until Sapp's flaws were revealed, his opponents were very wary of engaging him, which was sometimes their very bane, as Tamura and Yamamoto can say. His reputation was so fearsome that Mirko Cro Cop would reveal years later to have accepted to fight Sapp because no other fighter at the time wanted to do it.
** In more examples, the normally fearless Minotauro Nogueira of all people demanded special rules of no knees on the ground in his fight with Sapp, and he ''totally refused'' when promoters offered him a rematch, even for a bigger payment. Also, although Fedor Emelianenko was clearly joking when he declined to fight Sapp, it was rumored at the time that he really meant his words, as Sapp had enough power to possibly KO anybody with a lucky punch and subsequently ruin his record.

* EvilLaugh: Had a rather impressive one.

* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: Big time example. Sapp got punished by Kimo Leopoldo in the early rounds of his debut fight in United States, where he was trying to fight technically in order to appeal the American crowds. It failed because fighting like an orthodox kickboxer actually removed his ConfusionFu factor and just made him predictable for the more technical Kimo. When Sapp switched back to his wild clubbing style (and after some well placed rest times), he got a fulminant knockdown in less of a minute and ended up winning the fight.

* ForWantOfANail: Had Minotauro Nogueira been a bit less tougher, he would have been hospitalized or worse at multiple instances of his fight against Sapp. It is incredible, seriously, that the affair didn't end (probably tragically) with the first ganso bomb.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: He tried to do this on Bono-kun while teaming up with him HUSTLE, as Bono was upset on Sapp for accidentally splashing him in another match and was refusing to wrestle at all. Unfortunately, Sapp's way to do it was attacking Bono from behind, suplexing him on the ring and leaving him to be pinned, which only worsened things.
* TheGiant: Was huge, heavy and strong, though he was also '''infinitely''' more charismatic than your average wrestling giant. Oddly his actual height is about 6ft 4in which while still tall is not unusually tall for an American. His wing span or reach however is as long as someone who is 7' tall, which is about 212cm.

* GlassCannon: A subversion in which he lacked stamina and psyche rather than durability. Sapp was surprisingly well rounded in a classical sense: he was incredibly fast for his size, large enough to be difficult to harm, and strong enough to power out from holds, and in turn he could inflict massive damage with his crude strikes and force his way to basic submissions. However, he got tired easily and could become skittish towards tough opposition, meaning that his performance started going down with every minute if he failed at finishing his opponent early.

* HardHead: Although hard strikes could affect his drive, they actually did not damage Bob very much. Remy Bonjasky was unable to knock him out even after landing some wicked head kicks, while Fujita only could have Sapp tapping out of panic despite having landed several soccer kicks and knees that should have done more by themselves.

* LetsGetDangerous: His outrageously goofy gimmick ended once Sapp stepped into the ring. Even within the fights themselves, he was occasionally capable of effective comebacks when his opponents had hurt him, as in his rematch with Hoost or his fight with Kimo. It has continued into the jobber version of Sapp of today, as while nowhere near the force of nature he was in his prime, when he ends up in the ring with someone unable of hurting him (or someone with even lesser stamina than himself), he will eventually go on the offensive.

* LoonyFan: Takehiro Murahama of shootboxing fame fell in love with Sapp's act, so he called himself "Mini Beast" and voiced everywhere his desire to become his cornerman. It seems he didn't.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: His poor performance against Kimo Leopoldo was the reason Nobuaki Kakuda was banned from refereeing in United States, as everybody could see he was there clearly to help Sapp.

** Knocked out Tommy Glanville with his first punch. Before that, Sapp had spent the fight parrying and blocking by instance of his trainers in order to practice his defense.

* PuzzleBoss: The reason why he was in increasing inferiority against his opponents through his career: they had all their time to study Sapp order to figure out his weaknesses, while he didn't have much to study them or even hit the gym due to his growing media schedule.

* TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential: Learned UsefulNotes/MuayThai before his fight with Mirko Cro Cop, and it was rumored that he also trained with Creator/BasRutten. Later did orthodox kickboxing with his friend Sam Greco.

* UnskilledButStrong: He has become the poster boy for this trope in both kickboxing and mixed martial arts history. Reality is a bit more complex, though: although he certainly only got away with his poor skills due to his cartoonish strength and size, Sapp was very good at using those assets to counter his opponents's technique. Minotauro Nogueira, a UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu wizard, only managed to lock his armbar when Sapp himself conceded it out of fatigue, while Ernesto Hoost, one of the greatest kickboxers ever, was repeatedly bottlenecked by Sapp where the latter could unload all of his strength without worrying about Hoost's famed movement. If Sapp's notably technical performance at the K-1 Hiroshima Grand Prix serves as an indicator, a Bob Sapp who had trained seriously through his entire career might have make it to history books.

** Even the modern day "Lay and Pray" version of Sapp has shades of this. While nowhere near the force of nature he was in his prime, when he ends up in the ring with someone unable to land significant blows (or someone with even lesser stamina than himself) Sapp will eventually get bored and go on the offensive. He actually ''won'' his fight with Akebono in this manner, as he quickly realized the disgraced Sumo was incapable of hurting him. His bout with Ōsunaarashi, [[SoBadItsGood on the other hand]] quickly devolved into a WimpFight that Sapp "won", though '''no one''' left that ring with their dignity intact.

* UnskilledButStrong: He has become the poster boy for this trope in both kickboxing and mixed martial arts history. Reality is a bit more complex, though: although he certainly only got away with his poor skills due to his cartoonish strength and size, Sapp was very good at using those assets to counter his opponents's technique. Minotauro Nogueira, a UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu wizard, only managed to lock his armbar when Sapp himself conceded it out of fatigue, while Ernesto Hoost, one of the greatest kickboxers ever, was repeatedly bottlenecked by Sapp where the latter could unload all of his strength without worrying about Hoost's famed movement. If Sapp's notably technical performance at the K-1 Hiroshima Grand Prix serves as an indicator, a Bob Sapp who had trained seriously through his entire career would have make it to history books.

** Even the modern day "Lay and Pray" version of Sapp has shades of this. While nowhere near the force of nature he was in his prime, when he ends up in the ring with someone unable to land significant blows (or someone with even lesser stamina than himself) Sapp will eventually get bored and go on the offensive. He actually ''won'' his fight with Akebono in this manner, as he quickly realized the disgraced Sumo was incapable of hurting him. His bout with Ōsunaarashi, [[SoBadItsGood on the other hand]] quickly devolved into a WimpFight that Sapp "won", though '''no one'' left that ring with their dignity intact.

* ConfusionFu: His untrained punching style was based on wild hooks, downward hammerfists and random arm blows. This was often unpredictable for classically trained opponents, who did not expect such a crude style of striking to be thrown at them. It had also the factor to be near impossible to block even if his adversaries covered up: with a fighter as ungodly strong as Sapp, any blow was guaranteed to inflict damage.

Robert Malcolm Sapp (born September 22, 1973) is an American {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, [[UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} Kickboxer]] and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter. An immensely huge guy, Sapp started as a football player, but he achieved little there, so he went to train in professional wrestling at the Wrestling/WorldChampionshipWrestling Power Plant before theclosure of the company. With seemingly nowhere else to go but to back Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside, he gained a few victories in the lower mid card as "The Beast" before [[TheWorfEffect being used to put over]] Omem. However, his fate would change radically upon being scouted by Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1 after a toughman contest. Through his charisma, physique and an insane amount of smart protection by K-1, Sapp became a wild star in Japan, competing both in kickboxing and MMA and winning incredible upsets over veterans of the sports like Ernesto Hoost and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura, in no small part thanks to his overwhelming size. He got so popular that was featured in TV, films, commercials and all kind of merchandising, and of course pro wrestling, becoming the highest paid mixed martial arts fighter at his peak as well as the first and only black guy to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. He also competed in the fabulous Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE and became Heavyweight Champion in the Korean version of the World Wrestling Association. His boom lasted to 2005, a year in which fame caught with him and he slowly became less of a fighter and more as a deliberate tomato can, ending with a career twist which saw him taking dives for money for the next years, needed to pay some medical bills. With a late career filled up with loses and a pocket filled up with millions, he also dabbled in acting and sporadic pro wrestling.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: While Sapp has many losses, this trope goes more accurately to Hong-man Choi, the other K-1 star superheavyweight. With his skillset and size, he was the only opponent Sapp could not push around, nor outrange, nor overpower, nor outlast in a kickboxing match. (Even so, he only bested Sapp by a majority decision, meaning his advantages didn't give him a really big edge.) Not in MMA, though, as although they never faced off there, Choi was nowhere near the threat Sapp was at it, among other things for being much slower and more cumbersome.

* ChallengeSeeker: Sapp liked to challenge every big name he found in his path as PR stunts, regardless of whether he would ever actually fight them or not. The biggest example was Mike Tyson, whom he tried to lure into a K-1 ring, but he also challenged Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} to either a MMA fight or a pro wrestling match. Fedor Emelianenko was another of his challengees, but the Russian humorously replied that he would have to gain 70kg to fight him in equal conditions (Though Fedor did fight Zuluzinho, who was bigger and heavier than Sapp).
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: As a college football player he had a 600 pound bench press and a 800 pound squat, and his strength did not decrease after he made the jump to combat sports. Those numbers are not much for a weighlifter of his size, but they are ''massive'' for a fighter. For good or bad, Sapp is probably one of the strongest men and surely one of the hardest punchers to ever compete in professional fighting.

** Briefly threw some low kicks to Akebono's knees, knowing he carried injuries in them from his sumo career, although the rest of the time targeted his head and torso.

* CripplingOverspecialization: Zig-zagged. His early K-1 fights made it look like Sapp was not more than a hard hitter, but his PRIDE bouts showed he could handle basic submission holds and navigate through high level grappling thanks to a smart usage of his humongous strength. However, he never really developed a takedown defense, and precision striking did not catch with him either.

** In more examples, the normally fearless Minotauro Nogueira of all people demanded special rules of no knees on the ground in his fight with Sapp, and he ''totally refused'' when promoters offered him a rematch for a bigger payment. Also, although Fedor Emelianenko was clearly joking when he declined to fight Sapp, it was rumored at the time that he really meant his words, as Sapp had enough power to possibly KO anybody with a lucky punch and subsequently ruin his record.

* {{Expy}}: Though it could be difficult to recognize by non-old school MMA fans, Sapp was the second coming of famous vale tudo fighter Rei Zulu: a huge, ScaryBlackMan with a flamboyant personality who lacked fighting training but made up for it through size and strength, who became wildly popular and got important victories over orthodox martial artists, and who was finally figured out by the fighting community and turned into a jobber and entertainer.

* ForWantOfANail: Had Minotauro Nogueira been a bit less tougher, he would have been hospitalized (or buried) by Sapp at multiple instances of their fight. Seriously, it is incredible that the affair didn't end with the first ganso bomb.

* GayBravado: Some of his promos, entrances and TV appearances involved him draped in feather boas and dancing to Music/{{Madonna}} songs, but nobody dared to doubt his heterosexuality. In fact, one wonders if the fact that Sapp was basically a ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' character come to life was part of his charm.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: He tried to do this on Bono-kun while teaming up with him HUSTLE, as Bono was upset on Sapp for accidentally splashing him in other match and was refusing to wrestle at all. Unfortunately, Sapp's way to do it was attacking Bono from behind, suplexing him on the ring and leaving him to be pinned, which only worsened things.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Superheavyweights tend to perform badly in high-level mixed martial arts, especially when they are showy and overpushed and behave outrageously, but Sapp was really just as a dangerous in the ring as he promised in his promos, only not enough of a fighter to fully capitalize on it. Nowadays, being a voluntary fighting jobber, he does qualify for a JokeCharacter, though.

* OhCrap: His sole mass was enough to elicit this reaction from an unprepared opponent, but the truth is that Sapp, not being a well prepared fighter himself, had some of those whenever he realized his opponent was tougher than he had imagined.

* ScaryBlackMan: The initial image he was billed with, which worked more when it came to scaring opponents than the audience, as the latter found him just amazing.

* UnskilledButStrong: He has become the poster boy for this trope in both kickboxing and mixed martial arts history. Reality is a bit more complex, though: although he certainly only got away with his poor skills due to his cartoonish strength and size, Sapp was very good at using those assets to counter his opponents's technique. Minotauro Nogueira, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu wizard, only managed to lock his armbar when Sapp himself conceded it out of fatigue, while Ernesto Hoost, one of the greatest kickboxers ever, was repeatedly bottlenecked by Sapp where the latter could unload all of his strength without worrying about Hoost's famed movement. If Sapp's notably technical performance at the K-1 Hiroshima Grand Prix serves as an indicator, a Bob Sapp who had trained seriously through his entire career would have make it to history books.

* ChallengeSeeker: Sapp liked to challenge every big name he found in his path as PR stunts, regardless of whether he would ever actually fight them or not. The biggest example was Mike Tyson, whom he tried to lure into a K-1 ring, but he also challenged Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} to either a MMA fight or a pro wrestling match. Fedor Emelianenko was another of his challengees, but the Russian humorously replied that he would have to gain 70kg to fight him in equal conditions.

* TheGiant: Was huge, heavy and strong, though he was also '''infinitely''' more charismatic than your average wrestling giant.

* TheAce: Sapp was everything Japanese promoters looked for: he was powerful and imposing, had a relatively good talking, could legitimately excel in the ring against the right opponents, could easily transition from combat sports to pro wrestling and vice versa, and more important, was a crazy draw for casual fans. He was both K-1 and PRIDE's rookie of the year when he debuted, as well as the 2002 Tokyo Sports MVP, and even Black Belt Magazine considered him fighter of the year in 2003 and the best box office draw of 2002 and 2003.

* AdvancingBossOfDoom: A real life example in mixed martial arts and kickboxing, where his first move was usually charging directly forward with a barrage of punches. His opponents had to either back away or be as strong as him if they wanted to survive.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: While Sapp has many losses, this trope goes more accurately to Hong-man Choi, the other K-1 star superheavyweight. With his skillset and size, he was the only opponent Sapp could not push around, nor outrange, nor overpower nor outlast in a kickboxing match. (Even so, he only bested Sapp by a majority decision, meaning his advantages didn't give him a really big edge.) Not in MMA, though, as although they never faced off there, Choi was nowhere near the threat Sapp was at it, among other things for being much slower and more cumbersome.

** He vowed to defeat Ernesto Hoost in just three minutes, that is, one round. Impressively, he actually fulfilled his promise. (He promised it again in the rematch, but that time Hoost survived to the second round, even if badly.)

** After his pro wrestling match against Hoost in WRESTLE-1, he wanted to turn a rematch into a handicap fight against him and grand sumo champion Wakanohana, and also Hoost's trainer Johan Vos if he dared to make it a 3-on-1. Why was Wakanohana included remains unknown.

* TheBerserker: His main tactic both in MMA and kickboxing was the "[[FanNickname bullrush]]", that is, blindly charging towards his opponents while swinging forward his arms in the fashion of wild punches. With a physique like his, the technique allowed Sapp to overwhelm his opponents and land some powerful blows before the adversary could fend him off.
* BigBadWannabe: His reason to take part in the HUSTLE Grand Prix, in which the winner could ask a wish in storyline, was to become the president of the United States to conquer the world.

* BigEater: According to a Japanese TV show, Sapp once ate 33 cow tongues, after which he proclaimed he was ready to rematch Hoost. He was also prone to use food-related metaphors to threaten his opponents: he claimed that The Great Muta was an hamburger and that he was going to eat him, and in other occasion he said he was going to turn Muta's head into an omelette as if it was an egg.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: As a college football player he had a 600 pound bench press and a 800 pound squat, and his strength did not decrease after he made the jump to combat sports. Those numbers are not much for a weighlifter of his size, but they are ''massive'' for a fighter. For good or bad, Sapp is probably one of the strongest men to ever compete in professional fighting and surely one of the hardest punchers.

** Until Sapp's flaws were revealed, his opponents were very wary of engaging him, which was sometimes their very bane whenever they did, as Tamura and Yamamoto can say. His reputation was so fearsome that Mirko Cro Cop would reveal years later to have accepted to fight Sapp because no other fighter at the time wanted to do it.

* ForeignWrestlingHeel: He definitely evoked the trope, being the closest alive thing to a cartoonish ScaryBlackMan from anime, but the crowd was always behind him.
* ForWantOfANail: Had Minotauro Nogueira been a bit less tougher, he would have been hospitalized (or buried) by Sapp at multiple instances of their fight. Seriously, it is incredibly the thing didn't end with the first ganso bomb.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: He tried to do this on Bono-kun while teaming up with him HUSTLE, as Bono was upset on him for accidentally splashing him in other match and was refusing to wrestle at all. Unfortunately, Sapp's way to do it was attacking Bono from behind, suplexing him on the ring and leaving him to be pinned, which only worsened things.

* GroinAttack: Did it sometimes through his career in kickboxing to soften a particularly difficult enemy, knowing that Japanese referees were reluctant to DQ him.
* HardHead: Although hard strikes could affected his drive, they actually did not damage Bob very much. Remy Bonjasky was unable to knock him out even after landing some wicked head kicks, while Fujita only could have Sapp tapping out of panic despite having landed several soccer kicks and knees that should have done more by themselves.

* ItCanThink: Sapp played with the trope during his post-fight interview, describing himself as an "Intelligent Beast" after armbarring Wrestling/YoshihiroTakayama. Even if Takayama didn't have great skills and could hardly have defended a hold from such a strong foe, it was a surprise to many that Sapp could grapple at all. Minotauro Nogueira also noted it during his perilous match with him:

* TheJuggernaut: With his enormous size, bonecrushing power and shocking speed, he was the nearest to this trope one could find in combat sports. If his adversary did not have a massive power to match (or did not exploit his weak points), Bob could take everything they threw at him and keep moving forward until his stamina ran out.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Zig-zagged. Superheavyweights tend to perform badly in high-level mixed martial arts, especially when they are showy and overpushed and behave outrageously, but Sapp was really just as a dangerous in the ring as he promised in his promos, only not enough of a fighter to fully capitalize on it. Nowadays, being a voluntary fighting jobber, he does qualify for a JokeCharacter, though.

* MadeOfIron: While he might have lacked heart to keep up against hard hitters, Sapp had a surprisingly good chin and was very difficult to harm decisively thanks to his size and muscle mass. He notably walked through Bonjasky's head kicks and Le Banner's combinations without merely slowing down very much, and it took a striking supernova like Mirko Cro Cop to knock him out cleanly.

* NoSell: He showed absolutely no reaction to some punches from Nogueira, and also shrugged his way out of a couple triangle chokes.

obert Malcolm Sapp (born September 22, 1973) is an American {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er, [[UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} Kickboxer]] and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter. An immensely huge guy, Sapp started as a football player, but he achieved little there, so he went to train in professional wrestling at the Wrestling/WorldChampionshipWrestling Power Plant before theclosure of the company. With seemingly nowhere else to go but to back Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA Wildside, he gained a few victories in the lower mid card as "The Beast" before [[TheWorfEffect being used to put over]] Omem. However, his fate would change radically upon being scouted by Japanese kickboxing promotion K-1 after a toughman contest. Through his charisma, physique and an insane amount of smart protection by K-1, Sapp became a wild star in Japan, competing both in kickboxing and MMA and winning incredible upsets over veterans of the sports like Ernesto Hoost and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura, in no small part thanks to his overwhelming size. He got so popular that was featured in TV, films, commercials and all kind of merchandising, and of course pro wrestling, becoming the highest paid mixed martial arts fighter at his peak as well as the first and only black guy to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. He also competed in the fabulous Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE and became Heavyweight Champion in the Korean version of the World Wrestling Association. His boom lasted to 2005, a year in which fame caught with him and he slowly became less of a fighter and more as a deliberate tomato can, ending with a career twist which saw him taking dives for money for the next years, needed to pay some medical bills. With a late career filled up with loses and a pocket filled up with millions, he also dabbled in acting and sporadic pro wrestling.

!!! "Beast Tropes":