Super Fight: Bob Sapp vs. Ray Sefo

Right off the bat, Bob Sapp rushed in, and even continued punching when his opponent, Ray Sefo was on the ground.
The entire picture resembled his debut fight against Tsuyoshi Nakasako two years ago. Sapp, after the fight, tried to vindicate himself by stating, "(I thought) Sefo was on the ropes, not on the ground" and acted as though he was calm, but when the fight resumed after a brief interval, Sapp curled into a ball defending from Sefo's punch, and by looking at Sapp’s defense, I thought, maybe he lost his cool because of his fear towards fighting. The outburst might have been his way of covering up his eventual banishment.

Sapp forced Sefo into a corner and continued punching but Sefo defended and counterattacked with punches of his own. Then Sefo's knee shot was little too low and this time, Sapp went down in agony. Again, an interval, but this time, it was two minutes.
But after this knee shot to the groin, "…the entire legs felt numb and couldn't move well…" so Sapp was just defending against a fierce attack by Sefo. When the bell sounded to signal the end of the first round, Sapp subsided on the corner and couldn't even get up for a while.
In the second round, Sapp had no power. He easily slipped down to the canvass with Sefo's punch, and at the end, he went down with Sefo's right hook and right shot to the body.

Sapp just lost to Kazuyuki Fujita in K-1 Romanex this past May, then returned his IWGP championship belt, went back to the States, to star in a movie, and for a while, he was reported in the Japanese media as M.I.A.
Some media even reported that Sapp, in deep dejection, is considering retirement.
When I saw Sapp in a practice session for the media just three days before the event, I realized he is far from being retired but also I thought, he was far from being physically and mentally ready to fight.

This is the first K-1 Japan without Musashi in the line-ups.
As a matter fact, recently, the K-1 Japan series has this new title called "K-1 BEAST" and the word "BEAST" is printed much larger than "K-1 Japan" in the posters, advertisements, signs, brochures, and booklets. Which means, the basic contexture of the K-1 Japan series is based on Bob Sapp.

However, now, do we think of Bob Sapp when we hear the word "BEAST?"
The following comments by Sadaharu Tanigawa, the event producer of K-1, and the way this fight was broadcast in Japanese television, was all full of sympathy towards Bob Sapp and it actually reminded me of some environmental protection TV programs. I am not denying K-1's way of promoting Sapp but I don't think this is what fans are expecting from either K-1 or Bob Sapp.

Sadaharu Tanigawa:
"I have a special fondness towards Sapp, and just by looking at him making his entrance, tears almost came out, and my heart ached. Sapp's heart was back and this fight became one of the most memorable for me. I was truly moved by the way Sapp fought today. He cancelled the press conference yesterday because of his condition. He caught a cold before the fight and he was even vomiting till the day before. If it wasn't for the empowerment given by Sam Greco and Shinichi Ihara (the chairman of Ihara Gym), Sapp couldn't have made it to ring."

K-1 Japan GP 2004 Tournament Final
Hiromi Amada vs. Nobu Hayashi

It was the battle of Nobu Hayashi's right-left punch combinations followed by the knee shot, and Hiromi Amada's boxing technique.
In the tournament final bout, both fighters are usually exhausted or injured from the previous fights. This fight however was like the first round of the tournament, full of fast paced exchanges, which never bored the audience.

It was an even fight until the beginning of the third round.
Amada started to land clean right and left hooks to Hayashi's face. In about the last ten seconds of the fight, Amada's right hook lurched Hayashi's head and this was the decisive moment.

Amada, after beating Butterbean in a decision back in March 14th at Niigata, refused all offers, didn't even take Sunday off, concentrating on practicing. He first began with heavy running to build his physical capacity, then went to the boxing gym to re-learn punching from the most fundamental stages, and rediscovered that, "I started to use a lot of feinting recently but I found out my punches land more if I do it ordinarily."
Sure, both Musashi and Yusuke Fujimoto, two finalists from last year's K-1 Japan GP, were not in the tournament this year, but the reason why Amada captured his very first Japan GP title is because he did something very ordinarily; he took three months off and concentrated on practicing. (Of course, the support he received from his wife, also named Hiromi, and the newly born twins were tremendous)

By definition, less practice and more time off would lower the qualities of fights. In K-1 MAX, this theory is still there but in K-1 heavy's, it seems like fighters and promoters forgot about this common sense notion, and I believe there are some significances with the fact that Amada and Hayashi revitalized this theory at this time of the year.