{"id":893996,"date":"2026-09-16T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893996\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T11:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T11:00:23","slug":"physical-100-star-sexyama-to-pause-tv-activities-ahead-of-mma-retirement-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893996\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Physical: 100&#8217; star Sexyama to pause TV activities ahead of MMA retirement fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and television personality Choo Sung-hoon will temporarily halt broadcasting activities in preparation for the final fight of his professional fighting career.<\/p>\n<p>The 51-year-old Korean-Japanese rose to prominence after appearing in the first season of South Korean extreme survival show Physical: 100 in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>He is also known by his Japanese name Yoshihiro Akiyama and by his moniker Sexyama.<\/p>\n<p>According to media reports on Aug 20, Choo is set to compete in Black Combat 17, an MMA event scheduled for Nov 21 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.<\/p>\n<p>The bout will mark the end of Choo\u2019s career as a professional fighter. He is focusing on training and plans to minimise appearances on entertainment shows and other broadcast programmes until the fight.<\/p>\n<p>This does not mean Choo will disappear from television entirely. Programmes that were filmed before he began preparations for the fight are expected to be released as scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>Web variety show The Boss Is Crazy, which featured Choo and South Korean comedienne Lee Eun-ji, was released on Aug 19.<\/p>\n<p>The programme follows Choo, who has himself pursued business ventures, as he visits companies with growth potential and takes part in their management for a day.<\/p>\n<p>He will also appear in travelogue A Real Man\u2019s Travel Guide, scheduled to air in October, and will reunite with South Korean singer Kim Jong-kook after the pair previously appeared together in A Real Man\u2019s Travel Guide In Kyushu (2026).<\/p>\n<p>A former judoka, Choo transitioned to MMA and competed in promotions including K-1 Hero\u2019s, the UFC and ONE Championship before expanding his career into television. \u2013 The Korea Herald\/ANN<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and television personality Choo Sung-hoon will temporarily halt broadcasting activities in preparation for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,6675,85],"class_list":["post-893996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-na","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}