Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai Announced For DREAM 8
Shinya Aoki
A rematch between Shinya Aoki and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai has been officially announced for the opening round of DREAM’s welterweight tournament at DREAM.8 on April 5th at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
Aoki (20-3), who lost to Sakurai via unanimous decision in his fifth professional bout in 2005, will move up from featherweight for the matchup. Aoki advanced to the finals of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix last year, losing to Joachim Hansen in the championship bout. More recently, Aoki submitted Eddie Alvarez at Dynamite!! 2008 to win the WAMMA lightweight title then defeated David Gardner in a welterweight match at the opening round of DREAM’s featherweight tournament earlier this month.
Sakurai (33-8-2) has won seven of his past eight fights dating back to late-2005, most-recently defeating Kuniyoshi Hironaka at DREAM 6 and Katsuyori Shibata at Dynamite!! 2008.
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Tags: Hayato Sakurai, Shinya Aoki
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SUPERFIGHT
I’m looking forward to this fight… Aoki (a sub machine) against a really good standup fighter in Mach.. Their first fight was pretty good and I believe that they both have gotten alot better since that fight.. This also allows for Aoki to “get back a loss” which many MMA fighters like to do.. I don’t know who to pick in this bout but for the opening round of the WW tourney you can’t ask for a bigger fight, I can’t wait for DREAM.8 and will make time to watch it or atleast will attempt too.. I’m also interested to see how Aoki does @ WW with him being the #2 LW in the world imo, Mach will cut to make weight and Aoki will be somewhere around 168lbs (most likely), will this be another weight issue like GSP (The Greatness) and BJ Penn, where The Greatness cut weight then put on more pounds after compaired to Penn just making it to 168 and staying at that weight…
Penn isnt the #1 lightweight anymore …… or at least he isnt the clear favorite . Too many guys over in Dream who could matchup with him . I’d like to see him fight either Aoki ,alvarez or JZ at lightweight before I make him the clear #1 choice .
Doom, why is Penn not the #1 LW in the world? Because he lost to GSP @ WW, or are you going off of WAMMA rankings? Could it be because GSP pushed back the date of the SuperFight that his inactivity at LW makes you believe that he no longer is at the tops of the LW division? I too would like to see Penn fight the likes of Aoki,Alvarez, Hansen and JZ (mind you I do believe the most difficult test there is Aoki) but that is not going to happen anytime in the near future….
Not going on the WAMMA rankings , just my own personal one .He is in the top three for sure , I just feel that he hasnt been consistent at LW enough to be ranked #1 . Aoki just may be too slick for him to fend off even at his level . His hybrid -j.j. is top notch and Penn’s is more the traditional style which has holes in it when they match . Standing it’s penn for sure but aoki clamps down too quickly . Add in the height advantage to aoki and those long legs . I think you may feel the same way FR702 …… really , really close fight .
To only loose once @ 155 out of all of his fights thats rather consistant (Jens Pulver the first time they fought), With Aoki losing to Hansen in the finals of DREAM “recently” who would you put in place of BJ Penn? Penn’s recent loss came @ WW therefore I don’t hold that against his LW rankings nor do I rank him in the WW division, imo he is the #1 LW in the world now if KenFlo pulls it off well then BJ Penn being #1 would change… I would love to see Aoki and Penn fight, hell I would love to see them in a grappling match, I don’t think that it will happen the best oppritunity for Aoki to fight in North America is for him to fight for StrikeForce, something that might actually happen later this year (no he won’t be allowed to wear the pants, but that doesnt make nor break Aoki), but Aoki won’t fight for UFC anytime soon, only way I see this happen is if Penn did like he did earlier in his career and leaves ZUFFA and goes and picks a fight with Aoki (ex. Penn v Gomi 2003)….
With the world wide depth that is the LW division, I really don’t see any change in the top two BJ Penn and Shinya Aoki, they may lose in their personal attempts @ WW but imo that doesn’t change how dominant they both are @ LW……..
I could go on and on about this and I totally know where you are coming from, shoot me a message or we can create our own personal debate in the forums, cheers…..
good debate guys. here is my point. I think aoki is better due to his jj like dr.doom said. Bj’s jj is good but what I think makes his better is his flexibility in his legs. he can move those two everywhere and thats what screws with his opponents and gives bj the wins. he has amazing control over them and his opponents train against guys who are bjj blackbelts, but they dont have the same flexibility. its a whole different thing to train against. its like training for a fight against, say, rashad. he has great speed and power, but its hard to find a guy who has the same combination. you might find a guy who has great speed, but not enough power or vice versa. If aoki and bj were to fight I pick aoki. bj just doesnt train hard and you need to when you go agianst the top guys in the world. you could get away with half-ass training against the lower guys, (no offense to stevenson, pulver, etc.) due to your talent, but when you were to fight against the top 3 in the division, or p4p in the world you need to bust your ass training. bj doesnt do that. you can see in his fights that he loses stamina, whereas gsp seems to get stronger as the fights go on. I would love to see this match, not to mention aoki coming over to the ufc. Is it just me or has dream established themselves as the number 2 organization in the world? their matches are great and they have great talent. they for sure beat the hell out of affliction.
to add on, I know I will get ripped for this but here it goes. If bj did not have his flexibility in his legs, he would be an average fighter. his jj is not that good, its just the ability to use his legs. its like having four arms. top 5 jj guys to me in no order are: maia, arona, aoki, mir, florian. I am not hating on bj, just looking at his fights I have seen the holes in his jj. if you were to look at them with an unbiased opinion, you should see them too.
this fight is gna be crazy good
i want aoki to win
Ok well heeeeeeeerrrrrrreeeeeeee we go…..
BJ Penn loses stamina at WW, not so much at LW, as far as his BJJ goes he does have holes in his game when it is BJJ for MMA, Eddie Bravo explains why GSP is able to power out plus The Greatness’ pure size and power had alot to do with it, Penn’s BJJ for grappling comp’s doesnt have many holes in it actually but the difference of NO~GI vs GI is almost light and day ( in the things you can and cannot do in grappling manuevers)… Again IMO Penn rightnow is the #1 LW in the world, and most want to knock his 155 ranking due to the fact that he lost to (arguably the best WW champ ever) GSP, I don’t think that should be the case, seriously if he does lose to KenFlo then well he won’t be #1 anymore will he..?
If you are speaking BJJ for MMA purposes I mean shhit there are so many great practioners of BJJ that have made the transition in thier game hell I guess evoled is the word…. Um Arona is retired but I do agree his game on the ground is tops, Maia is a phenom bottome line, I can’t wait for him to make the run he is about to do….
Aoki has a problem with strikers, that is Penn’s edge rightthere the thing is that Aoki doesn’t like to get punched in the face (ala Eddie Bravo) he has lost due to the fact that once he got hit he didn’t know what to do (DREAM finals v Hansen), do I think that Aoki has the oppritunity to beat Penn 100% but the edge goes to Penn’s striking capabilities…
Aoki’s blend of Judo and BJJ is something that most people don’t realize, he isn’t a pure BJJ player and that is why his transitions are so smooth is because of his blend of the two… “The Baka Survivor” video in the forums section is a great example if you watch his movements while in gaurd or whenever and the little things he does you will realize that he is always attacking while on the ground and his movements are damn near flawless, pure top notch ground work definately IMO the best ground guy in the LW division for MMA purposes (BJ Penn a close second)
DREAM is imo the 3rd best thing out there rightnow, ofcourse the 2nd place goes to WEC yet alot of people consider the WEC UFC light but hey that is just me, I gotta go but will be back soon to check the responses cheers guys, o top orgs IMO
UFC
WEC
DREAM
StrikeForce
WVR
This is a nice little debate. Although I dislike Penn as much as I can dislike any fighter personally, I have to agree with fr and say he’s the top 155 in the world right now. Although I disagree with his promotion rankings, he’s spot on with BJ. Aoki is SICK, don’t get me wrong. But look what BJ did to Sherk and Stevenson in his last LW fights. Sure they were like a year ago, but, once again, innactivity was not necessarily BJ’s fault.
One thing I would like to see is if Aoki can grapple without his sweat sponging pants. It’s kind of like a reverse Greasegate (if you believe in all of BJ’s allegations).
What we won’t see, as mentioned above, is Aoki coming to UFC or BJ going to Japan for a one-time LW superfight. This isn’t like the early-mid 2000s where a stuggling UFC can send Chuck over to fight in PRIDE’s GP to see who’s got the best fighters out there. UFC has too much to lose these days.