4. Shinya Aoki
One of the greatest and most creative submission artists in MMA history, Aoki finishes fourth , the same placing he had on Sherdog's Top 10 Japanese fighters list. Even for those fans who weren't big fans of grapplers, Aoki was spellbinding to watch. His submissions were utterly unique, coming out of seemingly nowhere, made possible by Aoki's absurd flexibility. Nor did Aoki rely on a few go-to subs, as he could pull anything out of his bag of tricks. Aoki's own personality, a seemingly withdrawn, skinny nerd who then wildly celebrated and flipped middle fingers to the crowd after breaking Mizuto Hirota's arm on New Year's Eve 2009, was awesome, too. But let's pour some cold water here. While Aoki had a plethora of great wins and was a top lightweight for a long time, he was never clearly the best. And his game had significant limitations. He was a very good wrestler but not a great one, struggling to get the fight to the ground against foes with strong takedown defense. And if he couldn't do that, Aoki was vulnerable. His defense improved a little over the years and he developed effective kicks. However, his boxing was always weak, and he was always relatively easy to hit, compounded by a weak chin. Aoki turned pro in 2003 and immediately began fighting tough opponents. In his fourth fight, he was knocked out by very skilled UFC veteran Jutaro Nakao, and a fight after that, scored a unique standing armlock against another UFC veteran, Keith Wisniewski. Both would be portents of Aoki's later career. After a decision loss to fellow top 10 inductee and bitter enemy Hayato Sakurai, Aoki went on a long winning streak, from 5-2 to 17-2, that saw him enter the world elite. Victims during that time include Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Jason Black via triangle choke, George Sotiropoulos, Clay French via flying triangle choke, Joachim Hansen via gogoplata, Akira Kikuchi, Gesias Calvacante, and Caol Uno.
That's a great list of names, and many thought Aoki might be the best lightweight in the world. However, he suffered a shocking knockout loss to Hansen in a rematch, again exposing his weakness to strikes. Aoki then won three more fights, the most significant being a heel hook of Eddie Alvarez, already a top lightweight back then, which has aged extremely well. Aoki was a significant favorite against his old rival Hayato Sakurai when they rematched in 2009, but yet again, it would end with Aoki unconscious, having been knocked out in just 27 seconds. Aoki then showed some improvement with his kicks and ground-and-pound, defeating early Shooto legend Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, winning the rubber match against Joachim Hansen via decisive armbar, and breaking Hirota's arm via armlock, as mentioned above. This set up a big showdown against Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez, a showdown between East and West to determine who the best lightweight in the world really was. I remember being very excited for this, being a big fan of both men, but it ended up being anticlimactic. Melendez easily stuffed Aoki's takedown attempts and blasted him with punches, winning an easy, lopsided decision. Aoki would respond with a big 7 fight win streak, including vicious Achilles Lock of another lightweight great in Tatsuya Kawajiri, who we have discussed, vanquishing the very good Marcus Aurelio, neck cranking Lyle Beerbohm in 93 seconds, face-locking Rich Clementi, choking out Rob McCullough at the end of the first round, and defeating another submission artist in Satoru Kitaoka. This set up yet another major showdown with one of the West's best lightweights, this time a rematch against Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez in 2012. Alas, Alvarez learned from his defeat, enacting Melendez's gameplan, and knocking out Aoki in a little over 2 minutes. Though only 29 years old, this would be the end of Aoki's time as an elite 155 pounder. He would continue to fight and record many more wins over the years, including a stint as ONE champion, but he would never be considered among the top, especially as the knockout losses kept piling up. He is still active at the time I write this piece at 39 years old, having just been knocked out in 86 seconds in last November in ONE. However, don't let that obscure what is truly a marvelous career. Aoki defeated an incredible number of good and even great lightweights in his time and is among the most unique, exciting fighters ever.
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