Shinya Aoki
Shinya Aoki is a Japanese mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and grappler competing in ONE Championship's Welterweight division. He also competes in DDT Pro-Wrestling where he is a former three-time DDT Extreme Champion and former one-time KO-D Openweight Champion.
A professional competitor since 2003, he is noted for being the DREAM Lightweight Champion, former two time ONE Lightweight World Champion, former WAMMA Lightweight Champion and former Shooto Welterweight Champion. Aoki is an A-class Shootist and BJJ black belt, both under his long-term mentor Yuki Nakai, as well as a black belt Judoka. As of 2008, Aoki, along with DEEP champion Masakazu Imanari, and Sengoku champion Satoru Kitaoka have founded the "Nippon Top Team" as a group of elite Japanese grapplers competing in MMA.
Besides his MMA credentials, Aoki has garnered several submission grappling accolades including two All Japan Jiu-Jitsu Championships, a Japan Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship, a Budo Open Championship, and an ADCC Japan Championship.
Early life and judo career
Aoki described himself as a problem child while growing up, which caused him to be isolated by his classmates. He found relief joining the judo club while in elementary school. In junior high school, Aoki found himself still below the level of his training partners, so he multiplied his training time, visiting other clubs and teams in his free time. He also researched wrestling and sambo techniques in books and magazines, which would lead to his signature eclectic style. His hard work paid off and his coach proposed him to aim for the national team, but he rejected it to spite his coach for previously looking down on him. Aoki even changed schools to the Shizuoka Gakuen Junior and Senior High School so he would be in a rival team.Despite his success in competition, Aoki was criticized due to his unorthodox grappling style. He described his judo career as, "a battle against the tacit notion that a judoka's favorite moves must be seoi nage, uchi mata and osoto gari". He was also criticized once when he a struck a victory pose during a tournament, a practice frowned upon in judo. Aoki competed in national championships, rising as a star of the judo club of Waseda University. Even although his clash against his more traditional partners and teachers continued, he would score victories with unusual techniques like tobi-juji-gatame, waki-gatame and kakato-jime.
However, his interest began to move to the more liberal format of mixed martial arts, becoming a fan of Kazushi Sakuraba for his popularity and victories against much heavier opponents in Pride Fighting Championships. Aoki's conflicts in the judo team would only worsen. He admitted he would be disruptive, even keeping submission holds on after his opponents tapped out so he could get revenge on them. While in third year of university, he was finally kicked out of the team, but he was already training in mixed martial arts by this point. He made his professional debut the same year.
Mixed martial arts career
Aoki initially joined the Judo-based RJJ gym before moving to Team Roken along with his longtime friend Masakazu Imanari, though he later moved to Paraestra Shooto Gym, where he trained under former Kosen representative Yuki Nakai. He earned both his A-class Shooto rank as well as his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Nakai, and became one of the team's main teachers.DEEP and Shooto
Aoki had his MMA debut for DEEP in November 2003, winning a one night tournament by fast armbar submissions. He later would show further unorthodox grappling skills against veteran Seichi Ikemoto and Keith Wisniewski, who he defeated by breaking his arm with a standing wakigatame also known as a Fujiwara armbar. He also would face legendary Hayato Sakurai in a Shooto event, losing a decision which was seen as controversial. Aoki went to compete in both companies until 2007, also defeating Akira Kikuchi to win the Shooto Welterweight Championship.PRIDE Fighting Championships
In August 2006, Aoki made his PRIDE Fighting Championships debut at Pride Bushido 12, submitting American fighter Jason Black in under two minutes with a triangle choke. Following that win, Aoki was booked to face rising Lightweight star Gilbert Melendez at the following Bushido card, Bushido 13. However, prior to the fight Melendez received an elbow injury in training and was forced to pull out of the fight. Aoki's opponent was changed to Clay French. Aoki submitted French in just under four minutes with a triangle choke. Afterwards, Melendez was shown in the crowd with a sling, and announced he would like to face Aoki at Pride Shockwave 2006 on New Year's Eve. Aoki agreed.For unknown reasons, the proposed fight with Melendez did not take place. Instead, Aoki faced highly ranked Lightweight fighter Joachim Hansen. Aoki submitted Hansen with a gogoplata—this was the second successful gogoplata in MMA competition.
After his win over Hansen, Aoki was set to rematch Kikuchi in Shooto, with Aoki's Shooto Welterweight title on the line. Aoki successfully defended his title against Kikuchi, winning via split decision.
Following his victory, Aoki announced that he was to be the Shooto representative in the forthcoming Pride Lightweight Grand Prix tournament. Aoki's next fight was at Pride 34, where he faced little known Dutch fighter Brian Lo-A-Njoe. At the event Aoki submitted Lo-A-Njoe in the first round with an armbar. Following the fight, Aoki once again confirmed his participation in the Lightweight Grand Prix. With the purchase of Pride by the majority owners of Zuffa LLC, the Pride Lightweight Grand Prix was cancelled.
On November 21, 2007, Aoki's participation on the New Year's Eve MMA card Yarennoka! was announced. Originally, his opponent was to be two-time K-1 Hero's Middleweight Grand Prix champion Gesias "JZ Calvan" Cavalcante. Rumors that Cavalcante was injured surfaced only two weeks before the bout, though Cavalcante denied them before eventually admitting the injury and withdrawing from the fight. Aoki defeated Korean Olympic Judo silver medalist Jung Bu-Kyung, Cavalcante's replacement, via unanimous decision in what was Jung Bu-Kyung's mixed martial arts debut. Aoki had promised to use a never before seen submission in the match but was unable to finish the debut fighter.
Fighting and Entertainment Group
After the purchase of Pride by Zuffa LLC, most Japanese fighters signed to newly created mixed martial arts promotions, with Aoki signing to Dream. Here Aoki finally faced Cavalcante on March 15, 2008, at the opening round of the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix tournament. Early in the first round, the referee stopped the action when Cavalcante apparently landed illegal elbow strikes to the back of Aoki's neck. The ringside doctor announced that Aoki was unable to continue due to the injury and Cavalcante apologized for the incident. The fight resulted in a no contest. Elbow strikes to the neck and spine area are illegal under Dream rules. Aoki was later found to have sustained concussion of the cervical vertebra.They had their rematch at Dream 2 on April 29, 2008. In that match, Aoki defeated Cavalcante via unanimous decision. He sustained a severely bruised rib and tore cartilage in his costal area during the match. At Dream 4, Aoki defeated Katsuhiko Nagata via a mounted gogoplata submission to advance to the semi-finals of the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix. At Dream 5, Aoki defeated Caol Uno by unanimous decision. Later that night, Eddie Alvarez was set to fight Aoki, but had to bow out due to injury from his previous match that evening. Joachim Hansen took his place and defeated Aoki by TKO at 4:19 round 1 to become the first Dream Lightweight Champion.
At Dynamite!! 2008 on New Year's Eve, Aoki finally squared off against American Eddie Alvarez for the WAMMA Lightweight Championship. Aoki started quickly, securing Alvarez's back after catching a kick, before being thrown to the canvas by the stronger American. In a scramble, Aoki latched onto the foot of Alvarez and applied a heel hook. Alvarez fought the hold, but tapped out shortly after Aoki adjusted his grip. Alvarez also suffered ligament damage in his knee.
Aoki defeated David Gardner at the March 8, 2009, Featherweight Grand Prix card at Dream 7 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. This fight is remembered for Gardner waving to the crowd as Aoki was controlling his back and saying "Hello, Japan!", thus allowing Aoki to secure a rear-naked choke from that position. Aoki, who was still recognized by Shooto as its Welterweight Champion, also moved back to that weight to fight in Dream's Welterweight Grand Prix at Dream 8 in 2009. His first match in the tournament was a rematch with Hayato Sakurai. Aoki lost the fight in twenty-seven seconds via TKO due to punches and knees following a Sakurai reversal from a takedown by Aoki. As a result of the match, Aoki did not advance in the DREAM 2009 Welterweight Grand Prix.
Aoki met Fedor Emelianenko during a five-minute "special exhibition" at an April 29 M-1 Challenge event in Tokyo. Emelianenko made Aoki tap out from an Achilles lock.
Aoki defeated Vítor Ribeiro at Dream 10 on July 20, 2009, which earned him a title fight against Joachim Hansen. Aoki faced Joachim Hansen in a rematch for the DREAM Lightweight Championship at Dream 11 on October 6, 2009. Last time they met, Aoki previously fought a tough match against Caol Uno on the same night which went on for both two rounds when Hansen only fought for 2 minutes 35 seconds previously. Aoki ended up defeating Hansen in the second round for the title shot via submission to become the new DREAM Lightweight Champion.
Hirota fight
On December 22, 2009, it was announced that Aoki would not be taking on fellow DREAM fighter Tatsuya Kawajiri, but would be fighting Sengoku Lightweight Champion, Mizuto Hirota. In his pre-fight interview Aoki stated that he felt insulted with the short notice changes as he was looking forward to battling it out with one of the world's other top lightweight competitors in Kawajiri. Aoki's opponent Hirota just came off a spectacular win over longtime friend of Aoki's, Satoru Kitaoka to become the new Sengoku Lightweight champion. The fight between Aoki and Hirota was considered to be one of the main events of the night along with Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida and the K-1 bout Masato vs Andy Souwer.Aoki defeated Hirota with a brutal hammerlock submission that broke Hirota's arm in the first round at 1:17. In a moment which attracted great controversy, Aoki then proceeded to get in the face of his downed opponent and give him the finger, after which got up and ran excitedly around the ring doing the same to the crowd before leaving. Despite the crowd actually cheering him back, pundits found the act extremely offensive and unsportsmanlike. among them Dream executive Keiichi Sasahara and Aoki's own trainer Yuki Nakai.
Aoki would apologize for his behavior in his post fight interview, stating "after my fight, I was excited, and so I did something rude that I should apologize for. But that showed just how excited I was over that fight." He still defended his action: "when I had his arm behind his back, I could feel it popping, I thought, 'Well, this guy's pride just won't let him tap, will it?' So without hesitation, I broke it. I heard it break, and I thought, 'Ah, there, I just broke it.' I was stopped afterward, but even if I hadn't been, continuing to break it more would have been fine by me." As a result of his actions following his win, Aoki was dismissed as an instructor at the Paraestra Kasai gym, though he kept training under Nakai and representing Paraestra.