# Can Kyoma Akimoto beat Kleber Koike? ## -- The 'blueprints for defeat' for both men have already been revealed
August 11, TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO. The main event of RIZIN.54 is Kleber Koike vs. Kyoma Akimoto. The winner will challenge the undefeated 19-0 champion, Razhabali Shaydullaev, who has finished every one of his opponents, later this year.
This fight is often framed as 'the momentum of a 20-year-old vs. the 36-year-old former champion.' However, if you look at both of their fights side-by-side, we can have a more concrete discussion.
For both of these men, the blueprint for how to defeat them has already been made public. Akimoto's was revealed on New Year's Eve 2024, and Kleber Koike's in July 2025. In both cases, there are fighters who have actually followed those blueprints to victory.
I will start by laying those two blueprints side-by-side.
1. Deconstructing Kyoma Akimoto's only loss
Kyoma Akimoto has a record of 13 fights, 12 wins, and 1 loss. The breakdown is 7 KO/TKO, 2 submissions, and 3 decisions. It is clear he is a fighter with a high finish rate.
His only loss was against Yuki Motoya on December 31, 2024 (0-3 decision).
Let's follow the progress of that match round by round.
Round 1 Akimoto uses his southpaw stance to apply pressure, landing a left straight and a left body uppercut. Up to this point, it is Akimoto's pace. However, Motoya clinches from a hook, throws him to the side, and takes his back. Akimoto stands up, but they go to the ground again. As he transitions from half-guard back to guard, he takes some short punches. The moment he tries to reverse, he is caught in a front choke, which he escapes by lying on his back.
Round 2 It is the same pattern. Motoya clinches from a hook, throws him to the side, and takes his back. He does not let go of Akimoto as he tries to stand, securing his torso with a figure-four lock while landing punches and hunting for a choke. The round ends with hammer fists.
Round 3 Akimoto moves forward but is cornered against the ropes. He is clinched at the waist, pushed into the corner, and swung to the side to the ground. Motoya uses the same figure-four lock from Round 2 to hunt for a choke. Akimoto protects his neck and prevents the submission, but he cannot escape the back control until the end, finishing the fight while taking hammer fists and a twister.
In all three rounds, he was broken down using the exact same process.
Make him throw strikes. Use those punches as a signal to clinch. Throw him to the side.
Take his back. Then, never let go.
What is important here is that the hole is not 'takedown defense'. Getting taken down happens to everyone. The problem is what happens after, after his back was taken, he couldn't escape even once in all three rounds. This was the weakness exposed in this fight.
However, he was not submitted. He protected his neck the entire time. He faced Yuki Motoya, one of Japan's top-class grapplers, and did not let him get the submission. This is something that should be credited.
2. Since then, he has moved up in weight class
There is a fact that is easily overlooked here.
The Motoya fight was at 61.0kg bantamweight.
And Akimoto has since moved up to featherweight.
Here are his 5 fights at 66.0kg.
5 fights, 5 wins, 4 of which were finishes.
And there is a noteworthy moment at the start of the first round of the Patchy Mix fight in March 2026.
Mix goes for a takedown from a jab, but Akimoto prevents the clinch and separates his body.
Patchy Mix is a former Bellator World Bantamweight Champion who unified the title by putting Sergio Pettis to sleep with a rear-naked choke.
Akimoto stuffed the takedown of a world-class grappler.
A fighter who was out-grappled at 61kg stuffed a world-class takedown at 66kg.
Anyone involved in building a fighter's body should know from experience how weight cutting affects the strength of one's grappling. Fighting for three rounds with a body that has been completely drained is a different sport compared to fighting with a body that still has energy to spare.You shouldn't compare the Akimoto from the Motoya fight with the current Akimoto as the same fighter. At least, that is how I see it.
3. However, Kleber is not the Motoya type
This is where we get to the main point.
What Akimoto has acquired over the last year and a half is the technique of not letting the opponent clinch. Stuffing takedowns, separating the body, and maintaining striking distance. The Mix fight is the finished form of that.
The problem is that Kleber Koike is not a fighter who comes to take you down.
Kleber's career record is 35 wins, 9 losses, 1 draw, and 1 no-contest.Of those, 29 are submission wins. His weapons are the triangle choke and the D'Arce choke. He doesn't take his opponent down to submit them; rather,
he pulls guard himself and submits them from the bottom. He invites his opponent into his guard and
finishes them there.
The technique of stuffing takedowns is a defense based on the premise that the opponent is coming to take you down.
Against an opponent who sits down on their own, that defense misses the mark.
The area where Akimoto has improved the most in the last year and a half cannot be used directly against this opponent. This is the primary point of contention for this fight.
4. Furthermore, Akimoto's finishing style is dangerous
Let's look again at how he finished Mix.
He knocks him down with a left straight. He follows up with a soccer kick to the downed opponent. When he stands up, another left straight. And another soccer kick.
In other words, Akimoto's finish is a form where
he enters into the opponent's space after they have gone to the ground.
And that action is exactly the same as entering into Kleber Koike's guard on his own.
exactly the same thing.
A man who has secured 29 submissions is on the bottom, and he is launching follow-up attacks from above.
This will be the most dangerous moment in this fight.
And what makes it troublesome is that it is the very success pattern that has given him five consecutive wins. It is not a habit he should fix, but for this fight alone, he must refrain from the very method that has brought him victory.
5. The blueprint for defeating Kleber has been drawn by Mikuru Asakura
So, how do you beat Kleber?
The answer to this has also been revealed. On July 27, 2025, in the main event of Super RIZIN.4,
Mikuru Asakura won by a 2-1 decision.
The breakdown of the scoring released by the Japan MMA Referee Association is interesting. All three judges scored '0' for damage and aggression, showing no difference between the two. The split came down to generalship (20% of the scoring), with two judges supporting Asakura and one supporting Kleber, resulting in a 2-1 decision.
The fight unfolded as follows: In the first round, he dealt with being taken down calmly. In the second round, he landed effective strikes while handling his opponent's takedown attempts. In the third round, he used his core strength to prevent takedowns and finished the fight by managing the ground exchanges with body control.
He didn't knock him down, nor did he wear him out. He simply prevented himself from being finished and used up the 15 minutes.
And even then, the decision was split.
This is the reality of what it means to beat Kleber Koike. Nothing flashy happens. You just let the time run out without getting finished. In the last 15 years, almost no one has been able to win any other way.
6. Physique and Stance
Let's look at the numbers as well.
Kleber Koike: 178cm / 66kg
Kyoma Akimoto: 179cm / 66kg / 177.5cm reach
They are almost the same size.
Akimoto is on the larger side for a featherweight at 179cm, but he has no reach advantage in this matchup. The strategy of 'managing distance with length' is difficult to use.
As for stance, Akimoto is a southpaw. Kleber also sometimes uses a southpaw stance, and their mixed-stance bouts were also southpaw-vs-southpaw combinations. When both fighters use the same stance, it becomes a battle for positioning the lead foot and taking angles. Because the distance for stepping in is one foot closer, the danger of being clinched immediately after throwing a strike also increases.
The signal that Motoya clinched in all three rounds was Akimoto's punches. With both being southpaws, having no reach difference, and being at their closest the moment a strike is thrown, these conditions are not bad for Kleber to look to go to the bottom.
7. Holes on Kleber's side
Of course, Kleber also has clear weaknesses.
The only time he has been broken so far is through striking.
On May 4, 2025, he suffered a KO loss to Sheydulaev in 1 minute and 2 seconds of the first round.
That was the first time in his career he had been defeated by being struck. At 36 years old,
the memory of being hit and falling is still fresh.
Heading toward him is the 20-year-old's left straight that took down a former world champion with a single blow. Moreover, they are both southpaws, and there is no difference in reach.
If you isolate just the striking battle, Akimoto is clearly superior.
8. Conclusion
I will write down my assessment.
It is more likely that Kyoma Akimoto will win. However, there is one condition.
The condition is 'do not go for the finish'.
Keep your distance, land the left, break away when clinched, and a decision win is fine. If he can do that, he can overwhelm him with youth and striking. He just needs to do what Mikuru Asakura did, but with a faster body.
The only dangerous situations are the following two.
First, following up from above the moment Kleber stumbles and falls.
Second, going in to crush him from above when Kleber sits down on his own during a clinch.
Both are the very actions that have led Kyoma Akimoto to victory so far. Finishing Mix was exactly that kind of move.
Can the 20-year-old restrain himself just once from the method that has brought him victory?
I intend to watch this match focusing only on that.
To be specific about what to watch, after Akimoto knocks Kleber down, will he go for the follow-up or back away?. If he can back away, stand, and wait, this fighter truly has the potential to reach the championship. If he goes in, the 29th submission is waiting for him.
Notes and Sources
The round-by-round progress of the Tomoyuki Oka match is based on the official RIZIN match results page (RIZIN.49 / December 31, 2024, Bantamweight 61.0kg contract).
The development of the Patchy Mix match ('Mix goes for a takedown from a jab, but Akimoto prevents the clinch and separates') is from the RIZIN.52 match report.
The scorecard breakdown for Mikuru Asakura vs. Kleber Koike (Damage/Aggression were 0 for all three judges, 2-1 for Generalship) is based on the JMOC published scorecards/Gong Kakutogi reports.
Records, height, and reach are based on entries in Wikipedia, DATA MMA, and official RIZIN records.
The sections regarding weight loss and clinch strength, as well as the assessment of the outcome, are the author's views and do not guarantee the result.