He never asked for the bright lights, and never talked himself up. He’s the nicest man you can meet on the street, but if you hit him in the chin, you wake a demon. The Japanese loved that. They still do. KONISHIKI YASOKICHI, FRIEND AND FIRST NON-JAPANESE SUMO TO REACH THE RANK OF OZEKI I didn’t go into my second K-1 Grand Prix with any intention of defending my title. I didn’t intend not to, either; it was just that the four months after the Paris flight flew by and I wasn’t counting the days leading up to the GP by training sessions, but by calls to Dixon asking for my money back. Jules and I had decided it was time to move out of the apartment that Hape had arranged for us, and buy our own place. Back then I had no understanding of mortgages or brokers: I thought the only way to buy a place was the way I did it with my parents’ house – hand over the cash amount whole, as you might buy a sandwich or a beer. Dixon had stopped returning my calls after we got back from Paris and I was growing more and more annoyed, especially when news stories started emerging about how David Tua had been ripped off by his manager, and there was nothing Tua could do to get his money back.
