Us middle aged men can do it: Yoshihiro Akiyama talks appearance on Netflix

03 March 2023

"Sexyama" Yoshihiro Akiyama's lifelong ambition is to rule the pack, and on "Physical: 100," a reality competition series on Netflix, he was trying to do just that.

The Japanese-Korean MMA legend, also known as Choo Sung-hoon, joined the competition with winning in mind, but he had to defeat 99 other top competitors in a series of difficult physical tests, or "quests," as they were referred as on the survival programme.

Akiyama's classmates were obviously thrilled to see him when he first appeared in episode one, and in episode four, the competitors selected him as one of the 10 team leaders.

The MMA legend was visibly pleased with his team after they had led them to two outstanding victories in the "Moving Sand Challenge" and the "1.5-Ton Boat Challenge".

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Yoshihiro Akiyama, who was 47, was years, if not decades, older than many of his "Physical: 100" competitors, but they respected him for his bravery and perseverance.

The Japanese-Korean icon used this age gap as motivation to push himself to the maximum on the survival programme in order to demonstrate that middle-aged men can compete with their younger colleagues and still accomplish great things. You can see what he said to ONE Championship below.

“I’m 48 in Korean age this year, and I wanted to show middle-aged men around the world that I can go head-to-head with younger athletes and beat them. That’s why I applied. I wanted to win.

“Still, ranking in the final 20 out of 100, I gave the other middle-aged guys watching just a little hope and courage. Thanks so much to ‘Physical: 100’ for giving me that role. 

“Us middle-aged men can do it. We still got it. That’s all.”

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What do you think of the words from Sexyama? Let us know in the comments below.

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