40-year old superheavyweight Bob 'The Beast' Sapp announced his retirement via Twitter this weekend. Sapp has been fighting professionally since 2002 and is a veteran of nearly sixty mixed martial arts and kickboxing bouts. Sapp had a brief NFL career with the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings in the late 1990's before transitioning to fighting in Japan. Sapp was at one time thought to be the brother of NFL Hall-of-Famer Warren Sapp but in fact they are just cousins. PRIDE promoters in Tokyo took note of Sapp's impressive size (6'5/350lbs.) and outgoing personality and put him into bouts despite having virtually no fighting experience. Sapp has two kickboxing wins over 'Mr. Perfect' Ernesto Hoost and put up a valiant effort in a loss to Minotauro Nogueira in MMA. Sapp is also well known for having his orbital bone crushed by a left high kick from Mirko Cro Cop, causing his hulking frame to shrivel up in the ring on impact. These performances helped Sapp build a brand out of his name that he's been able to make a living off of for the better part of two decades post-football. During his pro career Sapp has dabbled in acting, appearing in numerous Japanese television shows and commericals, and films including Elektra and Conan the Barbarian (2011). Sapp has competed in professional wrestling in Japan as well. Sapp's competitive fighting career realistically ended in the late 2000's. Since 2008, Sapp compiled a woeful fighting record of 2-26 and has been accused of throwing fights. Of the two wins, one occurred when his opponent injured himself kicking Sapp. Sapp was famously confronted about throwing fights on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani prompting Sapp to adamantly defend himself. Sapp later released a series of bizarre sketch videos on YouTube parodying Helwani and acting insane. All in all Sapp has been one of the biggest personalities in fighting and someone who, for better or worse, has helped spread the popularity of MMA and kickboxing internationally. Kudos to him for that.
