I'm NOT surprised at all by this victory over Kang... Don't worry guys , kang is not "done"...nor was he ever "overrated"... His loss against this guy is almost normal... Know why? Because it took a super heavy top striker to ko this judoka!..(jerome le bannner did it)... That's right...A super heavy!... I'm no ****ing nostradamus....but here was my prediction for this fight...here's my thread...read it http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22932 Ok so i wasn't expecting him to win by KO..However , i was quasi 99% certain that he was going to beat him. it was a no brainer...I'm not saying that he's the next fedor or anything.. But akiyama is what Hidehiko Yoshida should've been...He's the upgraded version of Yoshida... (solid judo skills , only he's way more aggressive...he's fast too)... People , do yourselves a favor and WATCH Akiyama vs Manhoef. Yes , his fight vs Sakuraba was rather scandalous , but that aside , it takes nothing away from this guy's incredible technic..I've said it before , several months ago...even last year , i was already ranking this guy in the top 10 P4P list. because he's ****ing impressive that's why. the only downside is that he doesn't get to show it too often because he's not always fighting "popular" names...
People dont like him cus of the Sak fight, but he is a hell of a fighter. I think the Yoshida comparison is just short of an insult to Akiyama actually.
Not entirely , remember , Yoshida won gold in barcelona...both have amazing judo skills...but the reason why i'm mentioning Yoshida is because i always felt that Yosh had the potential to pull huge upsets against top fighters but he was never too aggressive to win most decisions.. (see his both fights vs prime wanderlei silva). Akiyama is the upgraded yosh...and the result ? is well...not surprising at all. Another guy who has that potential is the gold medalist Nastula...but unfortunatley he's past his prime and has a very poor cardio... but if the very same guy had fedor or nog's stamina...he would've defeated some big names already..
From all the videos you have shown of him, I concluded he is not impressive. He seems like he is fighting like he is scared. I know he isn't but his style of moving, running and covering up looks that way to me. It's like he waits for the right moments to occur, too boring for my taste.
he's not fighting like he is scared..he's fighting intelligently , waiting for the perfect opportunity and it works... akiyama highlight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iilqj1Rhtrs
