Korean-Japanese fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama has signed on with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and should make his debut sometime this year. The fighter who spent his whole career fighting in the K-1/Dream organization will be making his U.S. debut.

In a press release UFC president Dana White said, “I’m excited to bring Akiyama into the UFC and I can see him making an immediate impact in the middleweight division,” said UFC President Dana White. “Besides his great judo and submission game, he’s a finisher, and UFC fans are going to love watching him because he always shows up to fight.”

Akiyama was involved in some controversy back in 2006 when he had a victory overturned into a no-contest when it was found he used some sort of lubricant on his legs to help avoid the takedown from his opponent Kazushi Sakuraba. Akiyama has only one official loss on his ledger and sports a record of 12-1-0 with two no contests.