Trivia / Bob Sapp

• What Could Have Been:
  • Sapp actually conceived his "Beast" gimmick back in World Championship Wrestling, where the character would basically be a villainous version of Tarzan. It was when he debuted in K-1 that he changed it to the arrogant celebrity fighter he would become.
  • Sapp was originally slated to fight Semmy Schilt after his win over Hoost, but Schilt pulled out due to an injury and Hoost signed up for a rematch instead.
  • Sapp and Kazuyuki Fujita teased a bout for PRIDE 26, but it didn't happen. They ended up facing off a year later in K-1 ROMANEX.
  • A matchup against Mike Tyson was discussed and publicized multiple times. However, Tyson wanted to negotiate a boxing match, while Sapp wanted a K-1/MMA bout, and that was only the tip of the iceberg. It ended up becoming one of the hottest matchups in Japan to never happen.
  • In 2006, Sapp was set for a rubber match against Ernesto Hoost in what would be Hoost's last bout in Netherlands, but Sapp pulled out of the event the same night. K-1 claims Sapp demanded more money out of nowhere and was refused, while Sapp claims K-1 failed to pay him in the first place and didn't give him any contractual safety to fight. In any case, Sapp apparently made up for it by replacing an injured Remy Bonjasky on short notice at the next year's edition of the event (where a very unprepared Sapp was felled in 20 seconds by Peter Aerts).
  • He received offers to return to professional wrestling in World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action in 2007, but K-1's lingering contract impeded him from accepting them. He would make his return for Fighting Opera HUSTLE instead when the contract ended.
  • Had Sapp ever debuted in WWE, he would've been put to work in a storyline with Chris Benoit of all people, the same year Benoit committed his heinous murder-suicide. Sapp still believes his inability to wrestle for WWE saved his film career in the United States, as he was already a controversial personality there and becoming associated with Benoit in the media wouldn't have done him any favors.
  • Sapp's role as Ukafa in the film Conan the Barbarian (2011) was going to be larger, serving as The Dragon to Khalar Zym, but this position was given to his daughter Marique, and Ukafa was instead made to fill the role of The Brute.
  • There were talks of Sapp fighting for Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship against then champion Kenta Kobashi at the Tokyo Dome. It didn't happen as Sapp was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion which made negotiations for such a match difficult and thoughts that not even Kobashi would be able to get a good match out of Sapp.