If you think you’re depressed about Wanderlei Silva dropping out of UFC 116, due to having three broken ribs and a trashed knee, talk to Yoshihiro Akiyama. Going off various reports this week, it sounds like “Sexyama” (wonder who came up with that nickname?) is rife with grief, about not being able to fight Silva any longer. First there were reports that he was less than enthralled about fighting replacement Chris Leben next Saturday, and in a more recent report from MMA Fighting, the fighter’s management reportedly informed the outlet that Akiyama has been suffering from depression and had stopped training…wow. Talk about wanting to fight someone…
The report went on to say that Akiyama still wasn’t sure he was going to even show up for UFC 116, before passing a long an update from the middleweight’s blog, which apparently stated:
“I had various choices but … I’ll do my best in my fight!”
This jives with MMA Junkie’s report yesterday that Akiyama had finally agreed to take the fight. Just spit balling here, but if Akiyama had outright refused to fight Leben and pulled a no show at UFC 116- the chances of the Japanese fighter remaining on good terms with Dana White and the UFC brass, would be what? 1%? Or is that being too generous?
At any rate, as we noted earlier in the week, we’re thinking Leben vs. Akiyama could be pretty sweet. To bet on UFC 116 head here.