UPDATE: Akiyama Agrees -- Yoshihiro Akiyama Possibly Out of UFC 116; Not Pleased with Chris Leben Fight
by Dave Walsh on Jun 24, 2010 5:55 PM EDT
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What Sexyama wants Sexyama gets, unless of course it is a dream fight against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 116. With Wanderlei Silva out of action, Chris Leben, hot off the heels of a quick victory this past weekend signed on the dotted line to fight Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Of course, there is a problem, and that problem is Sexyama doesn't seem too enthralled with this concept. Fighter's Only has the translation.
"I am not pleased with the change. There are just ten days left until the contest for me to determine [Leben's] threats and the time is insufficient to establish a tailored gameplan. Leben is also not as high-profile as [Wanderlei] Silva and that does not help me.
"If there is to be a replacement I was hoping for a big name," he added, "I spent one year preparing hard for this fight and this news has come as a big disappointment, my motivation has waned. I do not know yet what will happen. .. In the worst case, I will not take part in the [UFC 116] event. We are working hard to resolve this issue."
It is easy to sympathize with Akiyama, who was looking to make an impact on the global stage in the UFC ring, finally. Wanderlei Silva might not be the youngest or toughest opponents still, but his name has huge value. Akiyama scoring a win over Silva carries a lot more weight than a win over Leben internationally, which is his concern. In the US Leben's name is attached with what is one of the most successful season's of The Ultimate Fighter with him being one of the key stars. Leben's UFC success story has been a feel-good story for a long time now, the bad boy turned good and so forth, but Akiyama, a South Korean who is notable not only there but in Japan, was looking for a match with Brazilian fighter Wanderlei Silva. Why? Silva is a legend in Japan. In UFC he might be seen as over the hill, but in Japan he is the Axe Murderer always.
UPDATE: MMAJunkie reports that Yoshihiro Akiyama has indeed agreed to the bout as of this afternoon.
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Akiyama is doing the fight now
And a good thing too, it would have cast him in a pretty bad light. Leben is not such a bad opponent either, he has a lot of name value among US fans.
In the US Leben’s name is attached with what is one of the most successful season’s of The Ultimate Fighter with him being one of the key stars. Leben’s UFC success story has been a feel-good story for a long time now, the bad boy turned good and so forth
You know, I wonder what kind of name recognition Leben carries anymore. It’s been a long time since TUF1, and he’s spent most of his post-Anderson time in kind of forgettable fights. Yes he headlined UFC something-or-other against Bisping, but do people even remember that fight happened? Since then he’s been in the prelim fight twice, including preliming on a Fight Night, which is as far down the UFC totem pole as you can possibly go. I dug seeing him get a decent fight last weekend, and enjoyed his win, but I think there’s been at least one, if not two, new waves of fans since TUF1 who really don’t give a crap about Leben.
We tend to think of TUF1 as a real line in the sand for fans, and it is, but, those “TUF noobs”, as they were once so poorly called, are now 5 year fans of the sport, and there’s a new crop of fans who looks at someone like Leben the same way those TUF fans looked at, say, David Terrell.
HeadKickLegend.com
While I agree with what you said about Leben
Akiyama doesn’t have a large following (well American at least) either. So it lowers my opinion of him when wouldn’t accept the fight because of name recognition.
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