Dynamite 2009: Aoki's Antics

Shinya Aoki, Dream's colorful champion and considered to be one of the best submission fighters in the world showed no class in his win over rival Sengoku champion Mizuto Hirota.

The very impressive victory was tainted by Aoki's post fight antics when he gave the fallen Hirota the bird. It was an obvious PR nightmare for Dream's top fighter considering the fact that he once criticized several American fighters for their behavior inside the octagon as being disrespectful to the sport.

He would later apologize for the wild wayward birdie.

There was a history of bad blood between the two fighters as Hirota had defeated Aoki's friend Satoru Kitaoka for the lightweight title at Sengoku 9 in August 2009, not to mention that Hirota labeled Aoki as a "repulsive person."

Also Aoki felt insulted when the organizers put Hirota against him instead of Tatsuya Kawajiri, another top-notch lightweight for the fight.

Thus, Aoki vowed before the event that he consider the fight with Hirota to be personal and promised to give Hirota the beating that he deserved.

The much- anticipated fight turned out to be one-sided as Aoki dominated and broke Hirota's will early that culminated into the brutal bone-breaking submission.


"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."


Now, wouldn't it be awesome if he can prove his mettle against world no. 1 BJ Penn in the near future? Dana White should consider bringing Shinya Aoki to the UFC soon. If he was able to lure Takanori Gomi to cross the Pacific, I'm sure he can do the same with Aoki.