pride 20 : SFUK's mixed martial arts reports

Mo Smith : His training is very very basic, he's five months into training. Unfortunately for us we really couldn't cover the basics that extensively, we kinda had to rush through because every time we'd prepare him for a fight, say for example instead of having six months of training and then prepare for a fight, it was like 'you got a fight in 2 weeks' or 'you gotta fight in a month'. So we never really had a chance to cover the basics, we had to rush over it. So he's still very green.

Was it the Yamamoto fight that kept getting rescheduled?

Mo Smith : Not this one. First there was a fight December 8th, then December 31st, then January something, and February was the last one. He's always preparing for a fight and never really covered the basics. He's better than he was when he started out but he's still not where he could have been if he'd trained first in the martial arts and then trained for a fight.

So Bob was specifically looking to get into fighting? It wasn't just that the Pride offer came up...

Mo Smith : He was always preparing for a fight, whether it was Pride or K-1. He was always preparing for a MMA fight or a kickboxing fight. Like I said, he never got to cover the foundation. We kinda touched it and moved on. Yamamoto is a skilled submission guy but with Bob its power right now, he's all power. He's pretty quick for a guy his size.

I noticed a few times in the fight he'd knock around Yamamoto and then stand off. Was he deliberately trying not to rush?

Mo Smith : Not to rush, take his time, because he's never been in a situation where he's fighting hard, trying to knock someone out, you can gas out. So we told him 'throw a couple shots, relax, and then go back later on'. Because the chances of Yamamoto getting him with a strike are not that good, but its possible. But the chances of getting him on the ground, its not remote, the potential is there. Yamamoto is really a good submission fighter. The main thing was to relax, focus on standup and don't get excited. He listened pretty well.

For the fans, Bob's an unknown quantity right now. Without giving away any secrets, what sort of strengths and weaknesses will we see from him?

Mo Smith : You can see the strength right in front of you! (Bob was interviewing for TV in the same room). The weakness is lack of experience right now. And of course there are submissions. He's five months into the business, so there's obviously his size, his speed and the obvious weaknesses are the submissions and his knowledge base.

How is his stamina? Was he ready to go the full distance if he had to?

Mo Smith : Well, we were prepared to go the distance until he got injured. He has a sore tibia muscle and he had caught a cold the week before. So we lost a little bit. But I told him I'd prefer him to go ten minutes and if he were to lose the fight... ten minutes and get the feel of what its gonna be like to go the distance... than to go for a first round knockout, you know one minute, thirty seconds or whatever. So he was prepared to go ten minutes, keep it relaxed, go slow and not rush himself.

Do you think on the back of this pretty conclusive win, Pride will put him in with someone better?

Mo Smith : Probably someone tough, I don't know yet. But hopefully they'll just build him up slowly.Just cos he's big doesn't mean he knows how to fight.

Would you say he's making a serious shot at an MMA career?

Mo Smith : Hmmmmmmmm....... I can't really answer that. I'm not his manager, that's K-1. I'm just his trainer.

Thanks for your time. One more thing. Do you have anything lined up?

Mo Smith : I'm training. I'm supposed to be fighting on June 15th in Montreal. K-1, a kickboxing match. It might be Arnie Duko (I have no idea how to spell that)

Bob Sapp flexing backstage

And some excerpts from Bob Sapp's post-fight press conference...

Bob Sapp : ....Yamamoto is an excellent fighter, he got me with some great shots out there.

Was the game according to your stategy? (a Japanese reporter, obviously)

Bob Sapp : Definately, I worked with Maurice Smith and Matt Hume. They kinda helped me out along the way.

Were you nervous?

Bob Sapp : No. I definately wasn't nervous in the beginning. I think one of the gameplans was to make sure I didn't too get over-excited.

The fan's would like to see you over-excited.

Bob Sapp : Well, I'll definately TRY MY BEST !!! (Sapp jumps out his chair and scares the shit out of the translator!)

The fight didn't go to the ground at all. Did you want it to stay on the feet?

Bob Sapp : We were prepared to do anything but it just happened that he chose to do more stand-up and occassionally he did try to take me down, wrapping me up, but I was able to overpower that and work inside (the clinch) a little.