The Untold Story Behind the Legendary Akebono vs. Bob Sapp Fight
The book The Day Martial Arts Beat the Red and White Song Battle: A Record of the 2003 New Year’s Eve Event War, published late last year, has been generating buzz. On New Year’s Eve in 2003, a historic incident occurred—although only for four minutes, the long-running NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen was overtaken in viewership ratings by a martial arts program on a commercial TV network. The book meticulously details the background of how commercial networks competed to broadcast martial arts that night, as well as the behind-the-scenes story of the Taro Akebono vs. Bob Sapp fight, which recorded a peak viewership rating of 43%.
Nonfiction writer Masashi Hosoda, the book’s author, spoke about his writing process and the background leading up to the legendary match.
— This book is based on a two-and-a-half-year series of articles published in Nikkan Gendai, correct?
Hosoda: Yes, that’s right. However, the content has been updated for the book, so it’s not exactly the same as the serialized articles.
— On New Year’s Eve in 2003, three major commercial networks aired martial arts events: K-1 PREMIUM 2003 Dynamite!! on TBS, Inoki Festival 2003 on Nippon TV, and PRIDE Otoko Matsuri 2003 on Fuji TV. Among them, K-1, which broadcast the Akebono vs. Sapp match, actually surpassed the long-dominant NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen in viewership ratings.
Hosoda: At the time, I was also working as a broadcast writer in the TV industry, and even though it was just for four minutes, the fact that Kōhaku was overtaken by a commercial network was a huge event. It was something that had never happened before and has never happened since.
— That’s true.
Hosoda: And of all things, it was a martial arts broadcast that beat Kōhaku. I’ve been involved in the martial arts industry for a long time, so I felt somewhat like a stakeholder myself. Seeing all three major networks—Channel 4 (Nippon TV), Channel 6 (TBS), and Channel 8 (Fuji TV)—airing martial arts against Kōhaku was an extraordinary situation.
Tyson Appears on New Year’s Eve!
――Normally, when three networks broadcast similar content, one would expect the ratings to be divided, leading to lower viewership.
Hosoda: It was the opposite. In fact, the raw and dramatic factional splits within the martial arts organizations became a major public interest. The controversy-driven excitement, much like today’s flame marketing strategies, contributed to the movement to defeat Kohaku. From the perspective of television history, it was an event that couldn’t be ignored, which is why I compiled it into a nonfiction book.
――The climax of this story is undoubtedly the “Akebono vs. Sapp” match, but the process leading up to this unusual matchup is fascinating.
Hosoda: Mike Tyson’s presence was a key foreshadowing element. In the summer of 2003, during a Las Vegas event, Tyson suddenly stepped into the K-1 ring.
――That was a huge news story at the time.
Hosoda: Yes. The then-K-1 producer, Sadaharu Tanikawa, went to great lengths to approach Tyson, negotiating with him multiple times and eventually succeeding in getting him to step into the ring at the Las Vegas event. Riding that momentum, they signed a multi-fight contract with him—$300,000 (about 35 million yen) as a contract fee, and $2 million (about 236 million yen) per fight. Sports newspapers were all over the story, with headlines like “Mike Tyson to Appear in K-1 on New Year’s Eve!” Expectations for a “Tyson vs. Sapp” mega-fight skyrocketed.
