At one of the biggest events in the history of ONE Championship, ONE X, Yoshihiro Akiyama was able to put a tense rivalry to bed.
‘Sexyama’ has been an icon of the sport in his native Japan for a long time but so has his opponent that he locked horns with back in March 2022.
Shinya Aoki is a certified veteran of the sport as proven by his willingness to continue competing past the age of 40.
His grappling skills have always been where he shines and in his long awaited clash with Akiyama, this looked to be the story of the fight.
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Aoki was able to take his opponent’s back and was constantly looking for the rear-naked choke or landing punches in an upright position.
However, for all of his dominance, the script would get flipped in the second round of their lightweight MMA matchup after Akiyama was able to defend his opponent’s takedown attempts.
His powerful striking had his opponent clearly hurt and after landing a lot of unanswered strikes up against the cage, the referee stepped in to close out this chapter in both men’s careers.
Watch the full highlights of the fight and how Yoshihiro Akiyama flipped the script below:
Both Yoshihiro Akiyama and Shinya Aoki returned earlier this year
Despite the previous feud between them, both Yoshihiro Akiyama and Shinya Aoki have been incredible representatives for MMA in Japan.
Akiyama, who represents both Japan and South Korea, returned to action earlier this year as ONE Championship headed to Tokyo, Japan, for ONE 165 at the sold-out Ariake Arena.
Akiyama came up short in his fight that was always going to be a tall order, facing off with kickboxing legend Nieky Holzken in a mixed rules fight.
As for Aoki, his fight ended up switching on extremely late notice as John Lineker stepped in to replace Sage Northcutt.
Despite Lineker’s prowess at bantamweight, the size difference between them was clear to see and that led to Aoki taking his opponent down and securing the tap in the opening round.
