Akira Kikuchi

Japan has been a dominant force in the world of mixed martial arts, The Japanese fighters generally specializing in the karate, kung fu or judo genre have had a huge impact on the sport worldwide. One such name that is renowned worldwide is Akira Kikuchi. The Japanese fighter excels in judo and wrestling and his presence is highly dominating in the middleweight division, this is also called the welterweight in the western countries. He is also a former Shooto title bearer, in his division. He has been associated with the Killer Bee group and has been training with them since the initiation of his missed martial arts career.

At 5 feet 8 inch and 167 lbs, Kikuchi was never a dominant size bearer but what dominated in the ring was his aggression, power and the style of fighting. Before he began as a professional Kikuchi competed in the Shooto league for amateurs. He also was the then champion. His first fight as a professional came in 2002 when he met Yoichi Fukumoto in his debut encounter. Akira was able to attain success at the topmost level almost instantly as he used an armbar to force his opponent to submit and thus kicked off his inspirational career. He followed this victory with a series of five continuous victories and nearly for 2 years after entering the professional arena the fighter was undefeated. Though there were many close calls and many a times he was stretched but he managed to come out victorious.

This impressive run came to a halt when Jake Shields and Akira Kikuchi clashed over an unoccupied championship. Shields handed Kikuchi his first defeat in a unanimous decision. This was a setback but Kikuchi came back stronger with a streak of 7 consecutive victories, including victories over Sam Morgan, Ramunas Komas and a special revenge against Jake Shields. His historical match against Shields made him the worlds champion as this time he over powered Shields in a unanimous decision again. Once crowned as the champion Kikuchi drove mixed fortunes he won and lost games but then the time for the Japanese to defend his championship. Kikuchi lost the match and the title to Shinya Aoki and thus came the end of his first reign as the Shooto world middleweight champion.

Kikuchi's loss was soon followed by a hyped incident where in the Killer Bee gym, of which Kikuchi was a part, received suspension orders. This was a result of one of the group members abusing and assaulting the official. He did get an opportunity to take revenge for his title loss to Aoki and both faced off in Feb 2007. The result once again went in favor of Aoki, though it was just a split decision. Kikuchi was then invited in a competition held by a world wide fighting authority. The winner was supposed to be a part of UFC however Kikuchi could not make it beyond the semifinal bout however he has a lot of fighting years ahead of him which allows him time to gain all the titles he possibly wants to.