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After picking up his second promotional victory against former ONE lightweight MMA world champion Shinya Aoki in March 2022 at ONE X via a second-round TKO finish, Yoshihiro Akiyama returns to the ONE Championship ring when he faces former ONE lightweight kickboxing world title challenger Nieky Holzken on Jan. 28 at ONE 165.
Akiyama and Holzken will be featured in a special rules super-fight that will be contested in a catchweight match at Ariake Arena. The match will have three different rules per round, with boxing in Round 1, Muay Thai in Round 2, and MMA in Round 3.
Although it is not the first special rules fight booked by the world’s largest martial arts organization, it will certainly be the first super-fight with this kind of ruleset. Because of how unique and special this upcoming match is, ‘Sexyama’ gave a sneak peek at his preparation for this battle with ‘The Natural’ on his YouTube channel.
In the video, the 48-year-old Japanese-Korean legend was seen sparring with MMA gloves on as his coach watched closely. Akiyama also talked about how this bout with Holzken came about and how ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong approached him for this super-fight.
Additionally, he talked about how he continues to challenge himself to take on this new test in his professional career despite his current age of 48.
Aside from his sweet victory against Aoki, the Team Cloud representative also scored a first-round knockout win over Sherif Mohamed in their welterweight MMA match at ONE: King of the Jungle in February 2020.
Yoshihiro Akiyama looks to go out on top with a win against Nieky Holzken at ONE 165
As mentioned earlier, Yoshihiro Akiyama is already 48 years old and is likely to hang the gloves permanently from professional fighting after this fight with Holzken. Still, before doing so, he wants to collect one final career win.
It will not be a walk in the park, though, because Holzken is expected to bring his best in this special rules battle. Also, Akiyama needs to survive the first two rounds of all-striking rules against one of the best kickboxers of his generation before he can go for submission attempts in the final round with the MMA rules.
ONE 165 is available on pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.
