Lashley versus Sapp – The Battle of the giants
The Battle of the Giants - AKA the battle of the Bobs.
Press Release
BILOXI, Miss. (May 21, 2009) – Fresh off his 24-second destruction of Mike Cook, former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley called his June 27th showdown against Bob “The Beast” Sapp in the “Ultimate Chaos” pay-per-view event headliner, live from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, the “Battle of the Giants.”
Ultimate Chaos,” presented by Prize Fight Promotions and Fight Force International, in association with the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum, Treasure Bay Casino and Budweiser, is being produced and distributed by Gotham MMA and Integrated Sports at 9:00PM ET/6:00PM PT in the United States and Canada on cable and satellite Pay Per View via iNDemand, TVN, DirecTV, Bell TV, Shaw, Star Choice and Viewer’s Choice for a suggested retail price of only $29.95.
The 6-2, 255-pound Lashley, 3-time NAIA wrestling champion at Missouri Valley College, is an incredible physical specimen. Bobby joined the U.S. Army and was a 2-time Armed Forces Champion and 2002 Military Games Championship silver medalist. Two years ago, the chiseled Lashley became a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) superstar, joining Donald Trump at Wrestlemania 23 in a bet against WWE president Vince McMahon. Lashley won the match and helped Trump shave McMahon’s head in the ring.
Bobby’s third pro MMA fight was a major hit last weekend as he displayed tremendous power submitting Cook, who had taunted the unbeaten Lashley by wearing a pro wrestling-type mask into their fight, with a near spine-snapping Guillotine choke. Bobby looked like a much more polished MMA fighter than he did in his previous three-round decision against Jason Guida.
“He tried to get in my head but I wasn’t going to let him,” Bobby explained. “He probably saw that the opponent in my previous fight had gotten a little in my head, but I learned from that experience and just shrugged it off this time. I trained hard and knew I was ready for that fight. My cardio was great and I worked on my boxing. I’ve reached a level of validation. When he put that mask on, I was only concerned with being validated to my opponent. The WWE thing will always be there, whether I have three or 300 MMA fights, but I’m glad that I have that WWE fanbase.”
Lashley fights a larger man for the first time in MMA action when he steps into the cage against an imposing 6-4, 350-pound Sapp (10-3-1), who played in the NFL for four years before becoming an iconic combat fighter in Japan, where he starred in PRIDE and K-1.
“Most heavyweights (in MMA) weigh 230-240 and that’s the size of guys I’ve fought,” Lashley said. “But I’m fighting a huge opponent in this coming fight. This guy must have weighed 370 at the press conference. Even if he gets down to 340, he’ll still outweighs me by around 85 pounds. Sapp’s really aggressive and I know he’s going to come out hard. He won’t be able to go through me, though. He’s strong but his weakness is in the gas tank, even though I know he’s training hard for this fight. It’s going to be a good fight.
“We liked this fight when it was first offered. When I fight there’s always been a ‘but’ after it. It was a good fight but …….fill in the blank. Well, I’m fighting a bigger guy who’s popular overseas. I don’t think this fight will go long. It certainly won’t be a long, drawn-out fight. There will be a lot of heavy blows, lots of banging – ‘Battle of the Giants!’ I’m training right now back home in Colorado. I like working in the altitude but I’ll probably make a brief trip to train (with American Top Team) in Florida where there are a lot of big guys at our fight club. I may have to stack three guys up (to simulate Sapp, Bobby jokingly said). I have some big guys here I’m training with. They not be quite as big as Sapp, but they’re big, very strong and have heavy hands like Bob.”
Controversial Dutch heavyweight Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel (35-13-3) takes on 3-time UFC title challenger Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo (16-8-0) in an intriguing co-feature. Former King Of The Cage and Gladiator Challenge champion Javier “Showtime” Vasquez (12-2-0) meets dangerous lightweight Din “Dinyero” Thomas (24-8-0), star of The Ultimate Fighter 4; Canadian lightweight sensation Chris “The Polish Hammer” Horodecki (12-1-0) faces 4-time World Muay Thai champion William “The Bull” Sriyapai (12-4-0).
Also fighting on the card are welterweights Brett Cooper (8-4-0) vs. Waachiim “Native Warrior” Spirit Wolf (5-4), Affliction vice president Tom Atencio (1-0) vs. pro debuting lightweight Randy Hedderick, middleweight James Orso (8-3-0) vs. Colby McMahan (3-1-0), The Ultimate Fighter 3 star Danny Abbadi (3-4-0) vs. veteran middleweight Lance Thomson (4-2-0); welterweight Eric Bradley (2-1-0), 2-time All-America wrestler and 2003 NCAA boxing champion at Penn State, vs. Belfast, Northern Ireland brawler Colin McKee (3-2-0). All fights and fighters are subject to change.
Tickets are priced at $25.00 (limited discount seating), $40.00 (general admission) and $55.00 (premium reserved seating) and sale at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum and all TicketMaster outlets.
For more information go to www.theultimatechaos.com, www.fightforce.org or www.mscoastcoliseum.com. Doors open at 5PM/CT, first fight 6 PM/CT, and the first PPV fight is at 8 PM/CT.
- So there we have it’s now 100% official! I am just hoping Bravo or another satellite channel in the UK grab the chance to air this for us MMA fans not stateside.
MMA blog by Dynamite Duane
