He Beat Korea Wearing Japan’s Flag. Korea Bought Every Ticket to His Last Fight

Featured photo: Choo Sung-hoon (Yoshihiro Akiyama) in March 2016. Photo: Pabian, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Twenty-four years ago, Choo Sung-hoon (51), known in Japan as Yoshihiro Akiyama, stepped onto the mat in Busan in a judo uniform bearing Japan’s flag and beat a Korean opponent. Now he’s fighting the last bout of his career in Seoul. Tickets for “Black Combat 17: VantaBlack” at Gocheok Sky Dome on November 21 sold out 55 minutes after going on sale (Black Combat announcement, via Yonhap News TV and Asia Today). To the man a Korean newspaper once said had “thrown his homeland,” Korea has handed over an entire dome that holds around 20,000.

I’ll be honest: when I saw the sellout news, my heart was full as a fan for a long time. A man who spent so many years being asked “Which country are you even from?” is having his final night, and Korean fans filled every seat in less than an hour.

He crossed over for Korea’s flag, and won gold next to it

Choo is a fourth-generation Zainichi Korean, born and raised in Osaka, Japan, part of the ethnic Korean community whose families came to Japan during the colonial era. In 1998, instead of a Japanese corporate team, he chose Korea, competing for a Korean corporate team and wearing the Korean flag on his uniform (JoongAng Ilbo). He still keeps the bib number from the first international meet where he represented Korea. “I wanted this so badly that I really cried,” he said (MBC “Lecturers Who Move Your Heart,” November 3, 2024, via Newsen).

He won gold at the 2001 Asian Judo Championships, but he ran into refereeing calls and turf battles in the national team selection process, and that year he became a naturalized Japanese citizen (JoongAng Ilbo, Newsen). The next year, at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, his opponent in the men’s 81kg final was Korea’s Ahn Dong-jin, and Choo won by decision. He remembers that podium like this: “The Japanese flag went up in the middle, and the Korean flag was right beside it. I was so happy, but seeing the two flags go up together, I felt strange” (Newsen).

The next day, he recalls, the front page of a newspaper said he had “thrown his homeland.” In Korea he was Japanese; in Japan he was Korean. That was where the years began that he spent carrying one question: “What country am I even from?” (same broadcast). Flags still follow Korean sports figures abroad: just this week, a crowd in Pattaya called Vietnam’s beloved coach Park Hang-seo “Kimchi man”.

Also read: South Korea Raised Its Soldiers' Pay. Then Its Sergeants Disappeared

How Korea came to call him “Choo Sung-hoon” again

He moved to mixed martial arts in 2004 and fought on the biggest stages of his era, K-1 Hero’s and the UFC (JoongAng Ilbo). He walked to the ring with the Korean and Japanese flags stitched side by side on his gi (Newsen). When a fight in Korea was booked for the first time since Busan, he admitted he “honestly didn’t want to do it,” because of the trauma from the hateful comments. But the Korean crowd cheered for him. He names the reason himself: “The nicest words in the world to hear are ‘Choo Sung-hoon.’ When I come to Korea, nobody calls me ‘Akiyama'” (Newsen).

After that, he became Korea’s most beloved fighter on variety shows, where people call him “Sarang’s dad” after his adorable daughter and “Ajossi,” a fond word for an older guy, and his YouTube channel has 2.09 million subscribers (JoongAng Ilbo). Tickets for Gocheok Dome passed 12,000 seats in 20 minutes (TenAsia). That’s why MMA experts called the sellout “the ticket power of superstar Choo Sung-hoon” (JoongAng Ilbo). Korean fans fill arenas for the athletes they love, the way they did when An Se-young put the crown on her head at the Korea Open.

Round 3, 4:40, sixteen years ago

His final opponent is Chris Leben (46, USA). In July 2010 at UFC 116, the two went to war. Choo did well in the first two rounds but was caught in Leben’s triangle choke at 4:40 of the third and lost (Sportal Korea, Sports Today). This will be his first time in the cage in four years and eight months, since he beat Shinya Aoki at ONE Championship in March 2022 (JoongAng Ilbo).

He handed the main event slot to younger fighters and will fight in the co-main event (TenAsia, Sportal Korea). He paused his TV work and set up camp in Thailand. “People ask me why I need to fight when I make steady money from TV. Money was never the ultimate reason I did judo and MMA. I love how I look when I’m facing an opponent, and the thrill and joy I feel in that moment” (Kim Dong-hyun’s YouTube channel, quoted by JoongAng Ilbo).

The fans’ hearts point the same way. The most-liked Naver comment on the JoongAng Ilbo story was “I applaud the courage to do MMA at 51” (133 likes), and a fan who remembers the fight from 16 years ago wrote, “In the old fight, Ajossi was beating him up first, but Leben took it and came back. This time, Ajossi, let’s win for sure” (33 likes; checked November 7).

“Time to Say Goodbye” and one empty seat

Choo’s walkout song is “Time to Say Goodbye,” sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. Instead of the fast hip-hop or rock most fighters use, he chose a slow orchestral song, saying it fits his up-and-down life best (JoongAng Ilbo). His dream was to have his father, his life mentor, there for his last fight. His father, Choo Kye-i, a Zainichi Korean former judoka, passed away in 2023. His father always told him, “At a fork in the road of life, take the rough path instead of the smooth one” (JoongAng Ilbo).

“I have only one chance left now.” Choo said he’s afraid of whether he can pull it off, but promised to put on an exciting fight (JoongAng Ilbo). On the night of November 21, when that song plays in Gocheok Dome, the name the people filling it will shout won’t be Akiyama. It will be Choo Sung-hoon.

Sources

• JoongAng Ilbo, November 6, 2026: “A final bout with his rival from 16 years ago: 51-year-old fighter Choo Sung-hoon’s farewell song” (Korean) (Naver, 117 comments, sorted by likes, checked November 7, 2026)
• Yonhap News TV, November 6, 2026, Asia Today, November 3, 2026, TenAsia, November 6, 2026
• Sportal Korea, Sports Today, Chosun Ilbo, October 8, 2026
• Newsen, November 4, 2024, on MBC’s “Lecturers Who Move Your Heart”
• Black Combat official YouTube: VantaBlack official trailer, retirement fight opponent reveal