MMA Fighter Bios: SHINYA AOKI

SHINYA AOKI

BORN: Shizuoka City, Japan
5’11, lightweight

One wouldn’t think much at first glance of a thin, unassuming gentleman wearing tights into the ring, but Shinya Aoki is a menace in MMA. You’re not sure what he’s going to throw at you submission-wise, but you know it’s going to be highly dangerous and if you don’t react quick you’ll either be tapped out, choked out or on your way to having a limb snapped.
Cutting his teeth in MMA in the Shoot and DEEP organizations in Japan, Aoki would be invited to fight in the Pride Bushido 12 show against Americna Jason Black. In under 2 minutes he had the American tapped out via triangle choke. That exact move was the method of victimizing his next opponent, Clay French, who also tapped in under 4 minutes to a triangle. The submission skill of Aoki was creating quite a buzz in MMA, but it was a full blown rampant frenzy when Aoki tapped out MMA sensation Joachim Hansen with a gogoplata, a very impressive BJJ move perhaps seen for the first time in mixed martial arts competiton.
Aok defeated Korean Olympic Judo silver medalist Jung Bu-Kyung, and defeated the dominant Gesias Calvancante by decision. Very crafty and hard to figure out, Aoki would continue to find success in the DREAM organization and defeated Katsuhiko Nagata via gogoplata from the mount position, as the MMA world marveled at his submission prowess. He would add two more impressive wins to his resume by defeating Caol Uno by decision and then tapping out the dangerous American Eddie Alvarez by heel hook to become the WAMMA Undisputed World Lightweight Champion.
Aoki is always a very dangerous fighter whenever he fights, and he was able to thwart and defeat Brazilian sensation Vitor Ribeio in the summer of 2009 as well. Over half of his wins come by submission, and in the ones that aren’t by sub, there is always that feeling that there could be coming out of the blue at any time. Aoki is crafty and hard to fight against– much of his style is unpredictable, but you can forecast that he’ll be giving all his opponents a whole heap of problems every time they’re in the ring with him.

MMA MASTER
SHOOTO Middleweight Champ
WAMMA Lightweight champ

GRAPPLING MASTER
ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships
ADCC Japan 66–76 kg: 1st place
Rickson Gracie Invitational: 1st place
Campeonato Japones 2004, brown belt 1st place
Campeonato Japones 2005, black belt 1st place
GI Grappling 05, 1st place