How good is Yoshihiro Akiyama?

[Doctor Grudge]

FYI, I don't hate Akiyama at all and he was one of the things I looked forward to when watching Japanese MMA. I'm just trying to call it like I see it, he has always had big fandom behind him on these forums.

In many ways I wish he did not come over to the UFC because watching him interact with the Japanese audience was super fun. He was also the last guy I remember rocking a gi. Top tier entrance too.

Watching him lose his debut in the UFC was so deflating.

 

[BloodAxe793]

Lol, why couldn't he beat Nick in 2005, he lost to Karo and Diego not long before that. I already listed Strikeforce and EliteXC as places he could have been champ at WW between 2005-2008 and Karo has a similar style to him and beat Nick not long before 2005.

Akiyama fought Shields to a close decision at WW years later when he was much worse I don't see why it wouldn't be a winnable fight when he was younger and better.

Kang fell apart mentally due to family issues, you can look this up and I'm pretty positive it happened after he fought Akiyama so it's not relevant to that fight or how good Kang was at the time.

Just curious, did Kang ever officially retire?

 

[Twc]

It's a good question. It could be genetic but I'd say he likely just didnt know how to train himself for a hard 15 minutes (not that he was too distracted for it but didn't train correctly). Like I said earlier the training for MMA was a bit behind I think in Japan.

Akiyama may have had a hard time pacing himself as well. He was a slugger type of fighter. He throws really hard. He isn't energy efficient. Perhaps his IQ paid a large part in him getting tired.

Regarding potential, no one is arguing the results and I agree anyone can say that they would've been a champion but it still has fans wondering what if. There's plenty of people wondering how good BJ Penn could of been if he had trained hard (he admitted he didn't) and joined a top notch camp with quality training and sparring partners. Has anyone good come out of his gym?

Similar vein with Akiyama, has anyone come out of Team Cloud/Akiyama Dojo besides him? He didn't train at Jackson Wink long. Does training and sparring partners matter? You seem to agree it does when you say Japan gyms seem to be behind in training methods which I agree with.

And you don't think his modeling and acting gigs took him away from training? Did his wife stop working after they got married (serious question, I don't know)? Wasn't she a model or actress? His gym was based in Japan and his opportunities outside MMA took him to Korea. That's a little different than promotional opportunities related to your sport.

Mayhem Miller isn't a good comparison as he never showed potential. His draw was his goofy personality and fun fighting style. And Bully Beat down was directly related to his career and he didn't even have to move to film it, it was filmed in SoCal where he lives and trains. On a side note it is sad what has happened to him now and I hope he gets the help he needs, he clearly has issues and it wouldn't surprise me if he is diagnosed with CTE when his time comes.

I agree about his pacing, it was easy to draw him into a brawl and have him blow his load.

 

[Twc]

Just curious, did Kang ever officially retire?

Considering he last fought over 10 years ago and is 45 I'd say it's likely. He last fought before the rise of social media so it's not like it's easy for a fighter to announce their retirement unless they do it immediately after a fight.

Last I heard he opened a gym and said he was done fighting but that was a few years ago.

Honestly I'd rather not have fighters fight into their middle age unless they're paid really well. If not it generally means they had problems adjusting to life after fighting (finding another career) and aren't doing well financially.

 

[Twc]

FYI, I don't hate Akiyama at all and he was one of the things I looked forward to when watching Japanese MMA. I'm just trying to call it like I see it, he has always had big fandom behind him on these forums.

In many ways I wish he did not come over to the UFC because watching him interact with the Japanese audience was super fun. He was also the last guy I remember rocking a gi. Top tier entrance too.

Watching him lose his debut in the UFC was so deflating.

Yea I never thought you had it in for him or anything. Sakuraba is my favorite fighter of all time. I stayed up well into the early morning to watch Pride FC and especially him fight in the early 2000s. I still remember his collarbone breaking or popping out in his 2nd(?) fight with Wand and him trying to push it back in.

I had an earlier account here tied to an old email (Hotmail security is shit) but after one of Sherdogs forum upgrades I lost access to it.

I hated Akiyama after the Saku fight. When Saku retired he probably had the best blend of charisma and skill to replace him and I grew to like and root for him to win. Can't remember the year people started calling him Sexyama but it was well after that fight lol.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Regarding potential, no one is arguing the results and I agree anyone can say that they would've been a champion but it still has fans wondering what if. There's plenty of people wondering how good BJ Penn could of been if he had trained hard (he admitted he didn't) and joined a top notch camp with quality training and sparring partners. Has anyone good come out of his gym?

Similar vein with Akiyama, has anyone come out of Team Cloud/Akiyama Dojo besides him? He didn't train at Jackson Wink long. Does training and sparring partners matter? You seem to agree it does when you say Japan gyms seem to be behind in training methods which I agree with.

And you don't think his modeling and acting gigs took him away from training? Did his wife stop working after they got married (serious question, I don't know)? Wasn't she a model or actress? His gym was based in Japan and his opportunities outside MMA took him to Korea. That's a little different than promotional opportunities related to your sport.

Mayhem Miller isn't a good comparison as he never showed potential. His draw was his goofy personality and fun fighting style. And Bully Beat down was directly related to his career and he didn't even have to move to film it, it was filmed in SoCal where he lives and trains. On a side note it is sad what has happened to him now and I hope he gets the help he needs, he clearly has issues and it wouldn't surprise me if he is diagnosed with CTE when his time comes.

I agree about his pacing, it was easy to draw him into a brawl and have him blow his load.

We already saw what BJ Penn looked like when he trained seriously and there is also more evidence of his upper limit. We already know Penn is one of the greats regardless of speculation around his training. But like I said, it's fruitless to just say "well he didnt feel like training but imagine if he did" - what does that really mean? Training is a skill in itself. Penn is lazy, that is one of his weaknesses as a fighter. It's not really something you can eliminate without changing his entire IQ/personality. That is too abstract to imagine.


I think during the 00s, the time frame some of us are talking about I don't think his modeling career would have affected Akiyama much. As I said before he is hardly the most in demand athlete. Many athletes do commercials, modeling and cameos and still have longer training schedules than what the average MMA fighter has.

Quality of training does matter, but why are we assuming he would not train in Japan if he was not famous? Japanese fighters are incredibly stubborn and think changing their ways is a sign of weakness. That kind of describes Akiyama's fighting style which never evolved.

If he for some reason decided to get up and go to live in USA full time, which I am not sure how he would afford it if we are assuming he never becomes a draw in Japan, then he would be better but I don't think he'd be an entirely different fighter. Trainers only have so much effect.

 

[AristotleAmadopolis]

As the title states how good is Akiyama and what is/was his potential? Did he have the talent to be a champion in a major organization?

I always felt with his side projects modeling and acting that he never reached his full potential and had long gaps between fights, so long i thought he had retired after his 3 year layoff. That and he would move around and didn't really stay in the same place. He started off fighting out of Japan then he moved to Korea I believe because he had those shows with his daughter. He's on the Netflix show Physical 100 right now. Then he moved to Hawaii for a bit during the pandemic. There's gyms everywhere so he can train but I always wondered if he could be more.

Where does he have his training camps? Sherdog lists his camps as Team Cloud (the gym he started) and Jackson Wink though I don't think he trained there long. Team Cloud has no other notable fighters I can see. Does he have quality training and sparring partners?

He's shown skills in his fights with his takedown defense against Jake Shields, he got out struck. He lost to Chris Leben but he was winning the fight until he gassed and got subbed. He got KOed by TRT Vitor, no shame in that.

Physically he takes care of his body and seems to always be in shape (though maybe not cardio wise as he has gassed in fights). He has power and KOed Sherif Mohamed and a smaller Shinya Aoki at the age of 46. If MMA was his main focus do you think he could've been a champion in a major organization? He probably makes more money with all of these other endeavors.

you ever see his fight with manhoef?

really fun fight