Yoshihiro Akiyama fought Chris Leben at UFC 116, which turned out to be one of the most exciting cards of recent times.
Leben took the fight at short notice, Akiyama’s original opponent, Wanderlei Silva, having pulled out unable to fight.
Akiyama displayed superior takedown and grappling skills early in the fight, but had serious trouble knocking out Leben who seems to have a jaw made of steel! Akiyama himself took some quite hard strikes and did not go down but it was clear that his stamina was not what it should’ve been as he entered the second round looking the worse for ware.
Although Akiyama was caught in a triangle choke in the second round and tapped out, the fight was a battle the fans thoroughly enjoyed. See it here.
So, the question is where does Akiyama go from here? One interesting match up was posted on Sherdog.com.
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kendall Grove
In all honesty, the first thing Akiyama should fight is a treadmill — preferably for a few months, given the dreadful conditioning that has dogged his UFC run.
After he learns how to keep his blood oxygenated for three rounds, he then needs to prove that he deserves to be in the Octagon. It’s no secret that the UFC would love for Akiyama to lead their charge into the potentially lucrative Asian market, but they can’t bank on him to do that at this point in time.
That’s where Grove comes in — a skilled and rugged gatekeeper with just enough flaws to keep him from being a total mismatch for Akiyama. Putting their Asian golden goose at risk yet again may be a bitter pill to swallow for the UFC, but rebuilding the Asian MMA market comes with a razor-thin margin for error that Akiyama needs to prove he can handle.
Certainly, Akiyama’s stamina is in question. We at MMA-in-Japan.com hope that he comes back to the UFC to not only show his skills, but show that he can fight hard at top level for all three rounds!
