On October 16, 2007, Bob Sapp made a surprise appearance at HUSTLE's Korakuen Hall event.

Attacking Razor Ramon HG and his partner. Sapp aligned himself with Generalissimo Takada's MONSTER Army. He also announced that he would wrestle at the HUSTLE Mania 11/25 Yokohama Arena event.[5] His opponent was later confirmed to be Razor Ramon HG [6] and Sapp defeated him in the resultant match. His last match was against "Big" Dan Meehan. Since 2008, Sapp began to participate in WWA, a pro-wrestling organization in South Korea. On October 26, 2009, Bob Sapp captured the WWA Heavyweight title by defeating Lee Wang Pyo, a famous professional wrestler in Korea who was taught by legendary Korean professional wrestler Kim Il, at Olympic Fencing Gymnasium event. Sapp is scheduled to perform at Dramatic Dream Team Pro Wrestling's "2011: A RYOGOKU Peter Pan" event on July 24, 2011 using a "Beast will fight for money" gimmick.[7]

[edit] Kickboxing and mixed martial arts career

[edit] Pride Fighting Championships
Sapp was subsequently recruited by the Japanese MMA organization Pride, where he quickly became a fan favorite due to his size, charisma and aggression. After a number of successes in Pride, Sapp was then invited to K-1 by Kazuyoshi Ishii, the creator of the fighting sport K-1. Ishii saw the combination of great potential great marketability in Sapp and he also had actually fought and not just taken dives. After arriving in Japan, Sapp fought three matches in Pride. His first match pitted him against pro wrestler and longtime RINGS Fighting Network competitor Yoshihisa Yamamoto, who he finished by TKO at 2:44 of the first round.[8] Sapp's second Pride match was against two-time RINGS Open-Weight Champion Kiyoshi Tamura. Though Tamura was a highly respected fighter who held wins over the likes of Pat Miletich, Jeremy Horn, and Renzo Gracie, he was giving up 150 lbs to his foe and was quickly overwhelmed by the much-larger American, succumbing to strikes just 11 seconds into the bout.[9] During this time fans were first introduced to Sapp's "bullrush" technique, whereby he would rush an opponent with punches, quickly overwhelming them. Pride and K-1 collaborated to create a show billed "Dynamite" in Japan and "Shockwave" in the United States. He faced then-champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Sapp submitted to an armbar late in the second round. Sapp would never again compete in Pride, instead focusing his attention on K-1.

[edit] K-1
Despite losing his first fight by disqualification, Sapp was initially successful in K-1. He twice defeated four-time K-1 champion Ernesto Hoost by technical knockout. He became an overnight sensation in Japan afterwards, appearing on numerous television shows, advertisements, and movie cameos such as in the big screen adaptation of Devilman. K-1 heads, trying to strike while the iron was hot and hoping to duplicate the success of Sapp, made a new fighting division called "Beast" (Sapp's nickname), which featured larger fighters such as Choi Hong-man. However, the division was stopped after two events due to disappointing reviews and gate takes.

At the height of his success, there was talk and promotion of a fight between him and the former boxing Undisputed Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson. The two had a face to face confrontation immediately after Sapp's victory in Las Vegas over Kimo. K-1 signed Tyson to a contract and the fight looked to be on. However, Tyson's status as a convicted felon made him unable to get a visa to fight in Japan where the fight would have been most profitable.[10] Other locations for the proposed fight were made, but negotiations ended up dissipating to nothing and the fight never came off. In June 2005, Sapp won the K-1 Japan Grand Prix in Hiroshima to become one of 16 fighters qualified for the 2005 K-1 World GP. In the Japan GP, Sapp showcased greatly improved stamina, as well as better technique, than in his previous fights after intensive training under Sam Greco. In the K-1 2005 World GP Eliminations he lost by decision to "The Techno Goliath" Choi Hong-man. Sapp's initial success with his intimidating, blind chase-and-punch method (which he dubbed as "NFL Style") slowly petered out into disqualifications for bullrushing and punching after referee breaks. Additionally, experienced opponents discovered Sapp's weak pointshis vulnerable mid-section and legs as well as his limited stamina. On May 13, 2006, Sapp was to headline the K-1 show in the Netherlands. His opponent was Ernesto Hoost. Hoost stated in previous interviews and the interview on that show that this was to be his last match in Holland before his retirement. Sapp attended all the pre-fight press conferences and even attended the opening ceremonies for the show. It is unclear at the moment as to why, but Sapp pulled out of the event midway through the show.