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.

“It’ll work out somehow.”

――That grand plan quietly disappeared…

Hosoda: Even though they hyped it up so much (laughs). But there has never been a professional boxer who caused as much trouble outside the ring as Tyson. He had been convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to six years in prison, and he was repeatedly arrested and released. Common sense dictates that with a criminal record like that, he wouldn’t be able to enter Japan due to violations of the “Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.” They charged ahead thinking, “It’ll work out somehow,” but in the end, it didn’t.

――So instead of making a rational judgment, they prioritized the hope of drawing a “packed audience” by bringing Tyson over.

Hosoda: That’s why producer Tanigawa then attempted to hold the “Tyson vs. Sapp” fight in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, this time, the main sponsors wouldn’t agree. They insisted on holding it at a major venue within Japan.

By 2003, the internet existed, but business models based on online streaming hadn’t been established yet. For sponsors, a packed venue broadcast live on terrestrial TV, along with high-quality commercials, was the ultimate status symbol. However, in the end, not holding the “Tyson vs. Sapp” fight was the right decision. Sapp would have been easily defeated. There was no way Sapp could have won against Tyson, who would only accept boxing rules.

For those organizing the martial arts event, the cancellation of “Tyson vs. Sapp” was a serious crisis. With little time left before the New Year’s Eve broadcast, tensions among stakeholders grew. In the midst of this pressure, the last-minute solution of the “Akebono vs. Sapp” match was born.

In 【Part 2】, Hosoda will discuss in detail the surprising background behind the realization of this match, which ultimately overtook the NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen in ratings.

【Part 2: The Inside Story of the “Akebono vs. Bob Sapp” Match That Defeated Kōhaku】

 

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Masashi Hosoda (Hosoda Masashi)

Nonfiction writer. Born in 1971 in Okayama Prefecture, raised in Tottori City. After working as a caster for the CS broadcast channel Samurai TV and as a broadcast writer, he became a nonfiction author. His works include Sakamoto Ryoma Wasn’t There (Saizusha) and Why Do Musicians Abandon Their Devoted Wives? (East Shinsho). His 2020 book, The Man Who Made Tadashi Sawamura Fly in a Vacuum: A Biography of Showa-era Promoter Osamu Noguchi (Shinchosha), won the 43rd Kodansha Honda Yasuharu Nonfiction Award, while Rikidozan’s Widow (Shogakukan) received the 30th Shogakukan Nonfiction Award. In December 2024, he published The Day Martial Arts Defeated Kōhaku (Kodansha).