Funaki Interview (about Akiyama)

Masakatsu Funaki is coming back to fight Kazushi Sakuraba in "Dynamite!" this year.  He had an interview with a Japanese MMA magazine and talked about Yoshihiro Akiyama.

- Akiyama came back to the ring.  What do you think?

I went to Korea with him.  I did not imagine he had not fought for 1 year.  He was really relaxed before the fight.    He started to have a good rhythm after making jabs in the middle of fight.  

- What did you think about the fight between Akiyama and Sakuraba?  You were at ring side..

I did not notice about his body cream.  I was actually interested in seeing how good Akiyama would avoid Sakuraba`s tackles.  I was sitting right next to Mr. Tanigawa.  After the fight Sakuraba came by and complained about the slipping of Akiyama`s whole body.  I wonder if Akiyama applied an oil on his body and I watched the fight video when I come home.  I was sure Akiyama had an oil on his body by seeing the way Sakuraba was slipping.  I have fought fighters who did same thing as Akiyama and was not surprised though.

- What do you think about Akiyama`s comeback?

Well, If he did something he should not do, Hero`s should kick him out.  But since there is no MMA athletic commission in Japan, he will move on to the next promoter whenever Hero`s terminates the contract.  He is very competitive and has many fans and brings Hero`s more money, so Hero`s decided to keep him.