Media How Good was Sexyama?

[OldBoy91]

he beat bisping and shields IMO

Shields I'll give you.

Bisping... was about as clear a 30-27 for Bisping as it gets. Come on man. He rocked him early then proceeded to lose every other minute of the fight. Even if you stretch to give Akiyama round 1, what other round/s did he win? Whats the argument? Sherdog had that fight 30-26 for Bisping for what its worth.

I'll add that he absolutely beat Belcher though, since people like to bring it up like it was a robbery and Belcher won. Striking was dead even and Akiyama controlled him on the ground. Legit win.

 

[ChickenBrother]

Yeah, Akiyama is in black. The one in blue is Koji Ando.
Akiyama and DHK trained with Okami for a long time. Since at least 2007.
Wajutsu KK used to be the best gym for big men over there. Riki Fukuda is also in some of those videos from Dan.

OK that makes sense. Was pretty sure that was Akiyama going with DHK in the background from 8:00 I guess he's the guy leaning against the pillar facing away, waiting to rotate in while DHK is going with Koji. IIRC Stun Gun was borderline top-10 himself around that time and even though they're not going full speed, Akiyama's striking and TD defense looks smooth and on point. DHK KO'ed Erick Silva with the same looping overhand right he keeps throwing here.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

In MMA he was a competitive fighter, serviceable and skilled. But not champ material.

However in the facets of sex? Pure 100% uncut raw GOAT sex.

 

[pankrat]

OK that makes sense. Was pretty sure that was Akiyama going with DHK in the background from 8:00 I guess he's the guy leaning against the pillar facing away, waiting to rotate in while DHK is going with Koji. IIRC Stun Gun was borderline top-10 himself around that time and even though they're not going full speed, Akiyama's striking and TD defense looks smooth and on point. DHK KO'ed Erick Silva with the same looping overhand right he keeps throwing here.

Yeah that was recorded in 2014.
Stun Gun was indeed ranked top10, around the time he fought Woodley.

You can see him looking to set up those kinda wild swings in the standup he knocked Erick Silva and John Hathaway with, a style that he worked on specially after Yushin Okami got cut because, according to Kim, he realized he would be in danger of losing his job too in case he didnt took a less risk-averse style of fighting.

According to Dan the Wolfman, he didnt see Okami losing a single round to anybody in that room btw.

Akiyama is indeed pretty sharp and looks undersized. His main shortcomings imo were a limited ground game to take advantage of his great TDs and also lack of endurance.
Here he is trowing the way heavier Dan the Wolfman around with beautiful trips.



The other fat guy in the room is Ken Hasegawa, at the time Pancrase HW champion who had an epic war with Aung La in ONE.

There is also a very tall guy who was a pro kickboxer from the Middle East I can't remember the name now.

Dan the Wolfman seems a bit of a weirdo but you obviously need to have some skills for those guys to allow you spar with them in a regular basis

 

[BluntForceTrama]

what I covet most about Akiyams was his tenacity and courage. The dude literally doesnt give a shit whos in front of him.

Gun to head, Those are the types Id least want to fight

 

[ChickenBrother]

Yeah that was recorded in 2014.
Stun Gun was indeed ranked top10, around the time he fought Woodley.

You can see him looking to set up those kinda wild swings in the standup he knocked Erick Silva and John Hathaway with, a style that he worked on specially after Yushin Okami got cut because, according to Kim, he realized he would be in danger of losing his job too in case he didnt took a less risk-averse style of fighting.

According to Dan the Wolfman, he didnt see Okami losing a single round to anybody in that room btw.

Akiyama is indeed pretty sharp and looks undersized. His main shortcomings imo were a limited ground game to take advantage of his great TDs and also lack of endurance.
Here he is trowing the way heavier Dan the Wolfman around with beautiful trips.



The other fat guy in the room is Ken Hasegawa, at the time Pancrase HW champion who had an epic war with Aung La in ONE.

There is also a very tall guy who was a pro kickboxer from the Middle East I can't remember the name now.

Dan the Wolfman seems a bit of a weirdo but you obviously need to have some skills for those guys to allow you spar with them in a regular basis

Yeah Okami was a total stud back then. Boring to casuals but I think he was ranked #3 or around there when he got cut after losing to Jacare. Akiyama looks really slick here - I like his double harai goshi attempts off an underhook that he lands twice on Wolfman. I think some of his endurance issues were from him treating it like a Judo match. It makes for an exciting fight, but when you're carrying a lot of muscle you can't keep exploding into attacks and big throws for 15 minutes without gassing out. You kind of have to play it like Yoel Romero coasting until it's time to explode with extreme prejudice. But it's probably hard for a guy who's been training Judo their whole life to change their pace.

Weirdo but legit sums up Dan the Wolfman lol. The man definitely has skills but his name dropping and self promotion was over the top. Josh Barnett calling him out on here back in the day was hilarious.

 

[Smegma-Head]

Gotta love Sexyama. Just finisshed watching "Physical 100". He's well respected and all these participants were just super nice and respectfull towards each other. I really dig that mentality that was displayed in the show and lots of them were starstruck by Sexy.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

Top promotion wise, he certainly WAS NOT.
Denis Kang was one of THEE most overrated fighters of all time. To reference him and a win over him to establish akiyama as a top 10 fighter is absolutely f----- silly.

absolutely not, Kang reached the finals of the PRIDE FC WW tournament, a win over him a year later is not fucking silly, it's fucking smart. damn revisionists changing everything here.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

#9 is the highest he got in official sherdog rankings, around the time he beat Kang:

https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/4/Sherdog-Official-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Rankings-13325

Didnt retain the rank for much long.
I don't see how a win over a talented but flakey fighter in Kang is credit enough to claim Akiyama was "absolutely" top 10 fighter, nor how his fights with Saku and Misaki could helped him much given the controversial ending of both fights.

I think the comparison with Lombard is pretty on point. They share lot of strenghts and weaknesses. i'd say Akiyama was a slightly inferior version of Hector and their respective fights with Shields refflect it pretty well imo.

he didn't need to retain it for the end of time, just that time period. to make it to the WW finals, and then a year later pretend he's a washed up scrub is noobish. and still, no one gave a damn about rankings. come on man.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

I can't find it anywhere online but I remember Misaki was just going off on him like reprimanding a kid, saying he was a disgrace and Akiyama (thinking he'd just lost) just stood there taking it. It's interesting that Sexyama flip flopped between competing for Korea and Japan in Judo but most recently had represented Japan prior to debuting in MMA. According to Reddit, while he was popular in Japan at the time, he was perceived as a pretty boy douche heel.



Lol it's Dan the Wolfman getting handled by Okami. Tough to tell but I think that's Sexyama in the blue rashguard going with Dong Hyun Kim in the red rashguard. The view is blocked by the pillar, but looks like Stun Gun takes him down with a sweet ankle pick and then controls him from top position for the rest of the round. I remember DHK saying in an interview around that time he was happy to be training with Okami because there weren't any bigger guys at his gym in Korea. But I didn't realize Sexyama was also training with them. Makes you wonder why he fought 185 when he looks smaller than DHK who fought 170.

don't take reddit for anything, they are all noobs.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

Shields I'll give you.

Bisping... was about as clear a 30-27 for Bisping as it gets. Come on man. He rocked him early then proceeded to lose every other minute of the fight. Even if you stretch to give Akiyama round 1, what other round/s did he win? Whats the argument? Sherdog had that fight 30-26 for Bisping for what its worth.

I'll add that he absolutely beat Belcher though, since people like to bring it up like it was a robbery and Belcher won. Striking was dead even and Akiyama controlled him on the ground. Legit win.

i think a lot of asian fighters in the UFC get BS decision losses. IMO

 

[pick999]

Got a bs decision vs belcher

 

[OldBoy91]

i think a lot of asian fighters in the UFC get BS decision losses. IMO

I agree. Akiyama vs Bisping isn't one of them though. Clear 3 round decision as it gets.

I do think he should have beaten Shields though. He was throwing him around like a dad playing with his kids.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

I agree. Akiyama vs Bisping isn't one of them though. Clear 3 round decision as it gets.

I do think he should have beaten Shields though. He was throwing him around like a dad playing with his kids.

id have to rewatch it, as i'm just going off pure hatred and emotion right now. but yes he def beat shields IMO.

 

[Royce's Gi]

Gotta love Sexyama. Just finisshed watching "Physical 100". He's well respected and all these participants were just super nice and respectfull towards each other. I really dig that mentality that was displayed in the show and lots of them were starstruck by Sexy.

The Korean Mentality (Respectfulness etc) shown in Physical 100 should exist in the US and the UK, but unfortunately it is the opposite.

 

[pankrat]

he didn't need to retain it for the end of time, just that time period. to make it to the WW finals, and then a year later pretend he's a washed up scrub is noobish. and still, no one gave a damn about rankings. come on man.

Rankings are just a reference, man.

Akiyama had a possible case to be top10 with his K-1 run but we could name at least 10 guys in 07-08 who had comparable merits, then his fights with Belcher and Leben didnt quite help his case.

Akiyama was very legitimate but to claim he was a top10 of his era is a bit of hyperbole.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

Rankings are just a reference, man.

Akiyama had a possible case to be top10 with his K-1 run but we could name at least 10 guys in 07-08 who had comparable merits, then his fights with Belcher and Leben didnt quite help his case.

Akiyama was very legitimate but to claim he was a top10 of his era is a bit of hyperbole.

Yea, he just beat Dennis Kang and arguably beat Kazuo Misaki, the finalists of the Pride WW tournament, but that has no impact. Come on dude!!!! Youre high af.

 

[pankrat]

I do think he should have beaten Shields though. He was throwing him around like a dad playing with his kids.

Yeah, but couldnt do anything once it hit the ground and was too stationary in the feet. Shields always had underrated standup for how clumsy it was.
Close fight though. Lombard followed the path and had a great W vs Shields with agressive boxing and judo

 

[pankrat]

Yea, he just beat Dennis Kang and arguably beat Kazuo Misaki, the finalists of the Pride WW tournament, but that has no impact. Come on dude!!!! Youre high af.

Take it easy, man.
Akiyama was very good but not "absolutely" top10 as you want to present it.
Definitely not top10 of his era,

He arguably had a case at one point but, one one hand Misaki is far from a legit W for him, on other hand Trigg, Santiago or Acacio had legit Ws over Misaki and werent necesarilly top10 MWs for it neither

The fact is Akiyama in the best run of his career was coming in as just slight favourite vs Alan Belcher who was unranked at the time. Akiyama was not the unanimously ranked top10 MW you make him out to be.
I bring you ranks and odds. Actually had a close fight with Belcher, then got sub'd by unranked Leben.

A highly regarded and exciting MW with power, courage and world-class judo, but raher a gatekeeper than a contender for the premier org in MMA. Lombard, from his same era, actually proved to be a slightly superior version of a similar style.
Im a fan of Akiyama, I just think you are overrating him a bit

 

[Franklin U.]

absolutely not, Kang reached the finals of the PRIDE FC WW tournament, a win over him a year later is not fucking silly, it's fucking smart. damn revisionists changing everything here.

You have my sympathy, bro. The blinders are on when you try sit down on something that is silly.
It's OK, you love your fighter.