It’s can be hard to remember sometimes but when you take a look back on sports history over the past two decades there is has been no sport that has had greater growth or greater impact than MMA and the upcoming UFC 120 betting event in London will mark an incredible sporting voyage –not only for the sport but also for UFC.
For a world-class athlete to have his hat handed to him in any type of competition is humbling and difficult but to have to bounce back and try and salvage your pride and your professional standing against a competitor beloved by his fans and supported by an entire country is nearly impossible, but that’s exactly what’s on Yoshiro Akiyama’s plate right now.
Akiyama is one of the best known fighters and martial artists in Japan. He’s participated in the Judo World Championships and is a former Asian champion of the discipline. But those skills have yet to translate to MMA success and there’s very little chance that he’ll have success in the UFC 120 odds competition either.
He’s got a career MMA record of 13-2 with just 5 KOs. But he’s yet to fight any one of any real consequence and has participated in only two UFC events. In his UFC debut at UFC 100 he fought the little known Alan Belcher (much inferior to the competition he’ll face in the UFC 120 odds competition). In his second UFC bout he beaten by journeyman Chris Leben who was supposed to be the tomato can for Akiyama’s dramatic rise up the UFC contender list.
But it didn’t quite work out that way and even though it was the Fight of the Night at the UFC 116 event Akiyama still lost. That set up his match up in the UFC 120 betting event against Michael Bisbing. Bisbing is a handful under any circumstances but to have to fight him in his own backyard where Bisbing is an English legend is a tall order. The O2 Arena in London will be packed to the rafters and almost every single one of the English fans will be there to watch Bisbing beat the tar out of his opponent.
That will be Akiyama’s unenviable role in the UFC 120 betting action.
But Akiyama is hardly helpless and Bisbing is hardly unbeatable. The odds are that Bisbing will win and will take a tremendous performance by the Japanese fighter –much better than anything we’ve seen yet- to win. But it’s certainly not impossible and we’ve seen much stranger things in the UFC.