Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher
Yoshihiro Akiyama defeats Alan Belcher And so Sexiyama makes his long-awaited debut to the tune of…some opera song most UFC fans have never heard. Oh well, we can’t all be Andrea Bocelli fans. Despite being a huge success in Japan, Yoshihiro Akiyama is going to have a rough time in the UFC. He’s a bit small for a middleweight, which is presumably why he wasn’t able to easily throw around a stand-up fighter. Akiyama’s striking skills were decent enough. However he had a lot of trouble generating any offence in the last round of the fight. That brings us to the bit of controversy here. Alan Belcher has a right to complain about the decision. Of course, there have been worse decisions in recent memory, so he shouldn’t get too upset. It’s true that the few moments he spent on his back may have cost him dearly. However most people will remember the last half of the fight where Belcher started to really get his striking going. Most notable was a superman punch, launched with his rear leg on the fence. It was a competitive and entertaining bout. Hopefully this was enough for Akiyama to get noticed by the UFC fan base. None the less, he should consider a move to the welterweight division. Matt Hughes should kidnap him and tell him about the joys of cutting to 170. Next Fight: Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping
|
