Lashley Takes Down Sapp:: Sapp submits to strikes in firstSapp taps to Strikes; Lashley Goes 4-0 in First Round Domination

Lashley was unrelentng and tenacious in his winning victory over Bob "The Beast" Sapp, who fought at Utlimate Chaos on Saturday night in a cage, a rare instance in his 30-fight MMA career.

The smaller fighter by nearly 67 lbs., Lashley wasted no time taking the bout to the floor, where all of the action over the course of the bout between the two big men took place.

Sapp aggressively came out charging across the cage at Lashley as soon as the ref signaled the start of the fight, providing Lashley with his best possible set of options, given the task at han. As soon as Sapp's charge had Lashley within striking range, Lashley changed elevations remarkably fast for a heavyweight, then proceeded to shoot in and take his oncoming opponent down.

From there, Lashley launched strikes from the half guard, displaying a capability to hurt his opponent with powerful, accurate strikes from wherever needed. Most of what Lashley threw Sapp's way was deflected as Sapp used his massive arms to cover his head and face as hands and forearms rained down on him.

Eventually, shots started getting through, and where some in this position may have tried to pass from half-guard to side control, or even mount, Lashley seemed to make note of the proportionate strength differences between Sapp's lower and upper body. He was content to sit just outside of Sapp's perimeter, unleashing big shots that battered Sapp's arms into fatigue, and eventually started finding head and face.

Lashley spent less than half a minute once he found the zone, and started putting fast, hard fists into Sapp's face from the half guard, without any interest in anything but holding position and dropping bombs as Sapp tried to scramble out from underneath the barrage.

Eventually, Sapp tapped due to strikes, and the fight was stopped.

“Going up against Bob, you always expect the big bulls," Lashley said as he talked about his game plan, following the fight. "I had to take him down, cover and pound. The first thing is to win: ground-and-pound to wear the big man down. He has a big punch. I used my ground-and-pound and got out of there.”

Sapp conceded that the better fighter had one, despite describing a hard shot to the eye in the midst of the flurries being unleashed by Lashley.

“I got a good shot in the eye and was unable to see,” Sapp said of one of the shots that got through. “He got me in the eye. No excuses, He got me down today and controlled it. Give it up to Bobby Lashley.”

Below is a video of the fight.

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