Robert Malcolm Sapp is an American mixed martial artist, kickboxer, professional wrestler, actor, and former American football player. He is currently under contract with Rizin Fighting Federation. Sapp has a combined fight record of 24–39–1, mostly fighting in Japan. He is well known in Japan, where he has appeared in numerous commercials, television programs, and various other media, and has released a music CD, Sapp Time. He is known there as a gaijin tarento. He is currently working sporadically for various MMA promotions in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. The first documented use of the term mixed martial arts was in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg in 1993.
PRIDE Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).
K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii.
Fighting Network Rings, trademarked as RINGS, is a Japanese combat sport promotion that has lived three distinct periods: shoot style puroresu promotion from its inauguration to 1995, mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion from 1995 to its 2002 disestablishment, and a revived MMA promotion from 2008 onward.
Maurice L. Smith is a retired American kickboxer and mixed martial artist. In kickboxing, he held the WKC world light heavyweight championship, the WKA world heavyweight championship, and the ISKA world heavyweight championship. In mixed martial arts, he held the Heavyweight championship in Battlecade Extreme Fighting and the UFC, and became a member of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2017. A professional competitor since 1980, Smith has formerly competed in kickboxing for the companies All Japan Enterprise and K-1, Pancrase, RINGS, PRIDE, Strikeforce, International Fight League and RFA.
Pride Shockwave is the international PPV broadcast name for the mixed martial arts and kickboxing event co-promoted by the PRIDE Fighting Championships and K-1 on August 28, 2002. It was held at the Tokyo National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. The proper name for the event was Dynamite!! Biggest Mixed Martial Arts World Cup - Summer Night Fever in the National Stadium, also known shortly as Dynamite!!
Hero's was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion operated by Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent entity behind kickboxing organization K-1. Grown from and branched off of K-1's earlier experiments in MMA, including the K-1 Romanex event and various MMA fights on its regular K-1 kickboxing cards, it held its first show on March 26, 2005. The promotion was handled by former Rings head Akira Maeda. At a press conference on February 13, 2008, FEG announced that they discontinued Hero's and were creating a new mixed martial arts franchise, Dream, in collaboration with former Pride FC executives from Dream Stage Entertainment.
Satoshi Ishii is a Japanese-Croatian judoka, mixed martial artist, kickboxer and submission grappler who has held Croatian citizenship since 2019.
Elite Xtreme Combat, also known as EliteXC, was a United States-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization owned and operated by ProElite. It was founded as a partnership between Showtime Networks and ProElite and officially announced on December 14, 2006. It was headquartered in Los Angeles.
SoftBank presents Dynamite!! USA was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event co-promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), the promoters of K-1 kickboxing events and Hero's MMA events, and EliteXC. The event was held on Saturday, June 2, 2007 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. Mauro Ranallo, Bill Goldberg, and Jay Glazer did commentary.
Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) was the leading Japanese combat sport promoter founded on September 3, 2003. Its last president was Sadaharu Tanikawa and it was the parent company behind the now-defunct mixed martial arts series Dream and formerly, the largest kickboxing promotion in the world, K-1.
Dream was a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization promoted by former PRIDE FC executives and K-1 promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group.
Dynamite!! 2008 was the annual kickboxing and mixed martial arts event held by K-1 & DREAM on New Year's Eve, Wednesday, December 31, 2008, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It featured eleven DREAM mixed martial arts rules fights in a variety of weight classes, four K-1 rules fights, and the inaugural K-1 KOSHIEN Under 18 high school tournament.
Dynamite!! 2010 was a mixed martial arts and kickboxing event in the annual New Year's Eve event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group that took place on December 31, 2010 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event included bouts that encompass the DREAM, K-1 and K-1 World MAX banners. Just as the previous Dynamite!! 2009, with the official commentator Nozomi Sasaki, the event aired on TBS in Japan and HDNet in North America.
Final Fight Championship (FFC) is an international fighting sports promotion company founded in 2003 by the FFC owner and CEO Orsat Zovko. The company has its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, as well as a European office in Zagreb, Croatia.
The year 1997 is the 1st year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 1997 had only 1 event, Pride 1.
Bellator MMA & Glory: Dynamite 1 was a mixed martial arts and kickboxing hybrid event held on September 19, 2015 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, USA. The event aired live and free in prime time on Spike.
Rizin Fighting Federation is a Japanese mixed martial arts organization created in 2015 by the former Pride Fighting Championships and Dream Stage Entertainment president Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
