Bob “The Beast” Sapp (11-9) will be entering the cage to face Rolles Gracie (5-1) in a heavyweight showdown on Feb. 11 at “One FC 2: Battle of Heroes” at Kelapa Gading Sports Mall in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Other participants expected to compete on the card include URCC champion Kevin Belingnon, Muay Thai specialist (and a favorite fighter among women) Ole Laursen, WBA Champion and Evolve fight team member Yodsanan Sityodtong, Igor Gracie and Deep welterweight champ Yuya Shirai.
Rolles Gracie is coming off back-to-back first round arm-triangle choke submission wins in 2011. However, it should be pointed out both victories came against sub- .500 fighters. All five of Gracie’s wins have come via submission. The only loss on his 5-1 record was a second round TKO loss to Joey Beltran at UFC 109 in 2010. It was Gracie’s lone UFC appearance.
Bob Sapp still holds a winning record, but not by much. He has only won three of his last 10 bouts and has lost his last three in a row, all of which took place in 2011.
Here is one more interesting fact about Sapp; out of his 20 pro MMA bouts, “The Beast” has been out of round one exactly one time — and that was against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Pride way back in 2002 (Sapp lost that fight via submission).
Regardless of his record and skill set, Bob Sapp is a larger than life entertainer — a living cartoon if you will — and the fans in Japan and all over Asia simply love the guy. He is generally good for at least a couple minutes of action and can inflict some pretty serious damage if one of those giant fists connect.
The bouts confirmed thus far for “One FC 2: Battle of Heroes” are as follows:
- Rolles Gracie vs. Bob Sapp
- Ole Laursen vs. Felipe Enomoto
- Gustavo Falciroli vs. Soo Chul Kim
- Rustam Khabilov vs. Rodrigo Ribeiro
- Jessie Rafols vs. Ngoo Ditty