| Desription ......... Prior to entering mixed martial arts as a fighter in the K-1 HERO franchise, Akiyama was a decorated judoka, earning two gold medals in judo (one for South Korea, in the Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar, the second for Japan, in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan). Akiyama also competed in the Kodokan Cup Japan Judo Championship, the Japan International Judo Tournament, and the Paris International Judo Tournament, all of these in the 81 kg class.
The fourth-generation Japanese of Korean descent has since set the MMA world on fire by a series of victories for K-1 Hero’s, relying heavily on punches and armbar submissions. His devastating KO of Denis Kang in K-1 Olympia Hero’s 2007 was called “particularly brutal and quite shocking” by Fighters Only (June 2008), where Akiyama was also described as a “very athletic, intelligent, and fantastic technician, (who) is also highly aggressive and ruthless.”
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