As a shy, nervous 22-year-old NBA rookie, Yao Ming confronted the concentrated power of Shaquille O’Neal for the first time — and came out a winner.  The metaphors are perhaps too easy: basketball’s gentle giant aiming to save Africa’s gentle giants; the man who built a bridge between China and the United States now trying to bridge another vast cultural divide, between his nation’s nouveau riche and the people and animals of Africa.

"We're here to do something bigger and better," pro-wrestler Jon "Strongman" Anderson roars backstage.  He could also be alluding to the purpose of the trip, an attempt at "sports diplomacy" by Antonio Inoki, a Japanese former pro-wrestler turned politician.

Led by a Japanese pro wrestler-turned-politician, about 20 mixed martial artists from around the world — including a former NFL lineman — arrived in North Korea on Thursday to put on a series of exhibition matches this weekend.The exhibition will be the first major sports event with marquee foreigners in Pyongyang since former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman and a team of former NBA players put on a basketball game in January that was widely criticized in the United States.

Sports diplomacy uses the universal passion for sports as a way to transcend linguistic and socio-cultural differences and bring people together, and has emerged as an integral part of efforts to build ever-strengthening relations between the United States and other nations. Accompanied by former NBA star Cedric Ceballos and Frank Traore from the NBA Africa office, we arrived first in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.