Shooto Middleweight Title on the Line Saturday
Kikuchi vs. Aoki
Jordan Breen Feb 16, 2007
Akira
Kikuchi (Pictures) vs. Shinya Aoki (Pictures)
What a difference one year can make.
When Shinya Aoki
(Pictures) and Akira Kikuchi (Pictures) square off for the second time
this Saturday, it will be exactly 365 days since their first
meeting at Shooto's The Victory of the Truth. Time is a funny
thing: what does a year really mean in the fight game?
In the case of Shooto's world middleweight title rematch, a single year is the difference between day and night, a full 180 — the difference between Kikuchi as a forecasted favorite in 2006 and Aoki being considered the inevitable winner in 2007.
Aoki, then 22, was thought to have huge upside as a fighter, but was considered too inexperienced for a tested and proven competitor like Kikuchi. True, he was coming off of a shockingly dominant performance against Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Pictures), one of Japan's best grapplers who Aoki almost effortlessly triangled and turned into a bloody mess. But there were questions over how fight-ready Hironaka was, having taken a year off from the ring due to injury — which, by the way, Aoki caused, breaking his arm in a grappling match — and the fact remained that a fighter like Kikuchi was a vastly different animal most thought would be too developed for Aoki.
Their meeting was a classic. A hotly competitive opening round saw strong offense from both fighters before the Kikuchi asserted himself in the second round with some solid ground-and-pound.
However, it was the third round that fans remember most, as Aoki quickly climbed on to the champion's back, locked up a tight body triangle, and stuck to Kikuchi for the bulk of the round. Try as he might, Kikuchi was powerless to remove Aoki from his back, and was forced to only try to control his wrists in an attempt to save himself from being choked while Aoki pounded on the champion’s head.
When the final bell rang, a noticeably dejected Kikuchi stood in his corner with his back turned, perhaps knowing what was coming. When Aoki's name rang through the Yoyogi Second Gymnasium, the new champion, wrought with emotion, burst into tears and embraced his trainer and mentor — a former Shooto world champion himself — Yuki Nakai (Pictures). Meanwhile, a dispirited Kikuchi exited the ring the moment the decision was announced.
Kikuchi has fought but once since the Aoki bout, easily dismantling an overmatched Ronald Jhun (Pictures) in Oct. That inactivity was also due to the six month ban enacted by Shooto officials against KILLER BEE team members after the infamous incident involving Kikuchi's cornerman and teammate "KID" Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) and physician Dr. Kenji Nakayama, in which "KID" kicked and shouted at the doctor as he attempted to tend to a cut sustained by Kikuchi in his match with Aoki.
During that same span of time, Aoki has emerged as one of the most compelling and thoroughly exciting fighters in the sport. The Kikuchi fight acted as a launch pad for his career, as he had one of the best years of any MMA fighter in 2006: sensational submissions over Jason Black (Pictures) and Clay French (Pictures) in the PRIDE spotlight culminated with his unbelievable submission of Joachim Hansen (Pictures) with a quick and easy gogoplata, of all things.
Both men's careers have gone in almost polar opposite directions. So what makes this rematch so compelling?
Aoki and Kikuchi are elite caliber competitors, and so there is inherent sense of value to the match-up to begin with. Moreover, there is an interesting clash of styles that creates a very strong possibility for either man to win the match-up. While many people remember their first bout by Aoki crawling up Kikuchi's back, it was a very close and competitive contest, and the most damaging offense was actually done by Kikuchi in the second round with his ground-and-pound. It's been shown that Aoki is in fact mortal and can be hurt, if his opponents can damage him in the stand-up game, or not become frozen inside his hyper-dangerous guard.
A stand up advantage belongs to Kikuchi in this bout. While Kikuchi doesn't have the stand-up skills of his teammates Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) and Koutetsu Boku (Pictures), he still has the privilege of training with high quality strikers, and has shown a better natural aptitude on his feet. Meanwhile, despite Aoki's occasional wacky hook kick, his stand-up is extremely limited, which results in him typically clinching with opponents as soon as possible to either initiate a takedown, or failing that, pulling guard and working to submit his foes from there.
However, Kikuchi has a strong upper body, and has superb takedowns and throws. A black belt in judo himself, he comes from a long line of judoka throughout his family lineage. All grappling skills considered, from takedowns, to control, to submission offense and defense, Kikuchi may be the best grappler that Aoki has faced, short of Hayato Sakurai (Pictures).
While the Sakurai fight was very close and competitive, “Mach” was able to control the top position on Aoki and had the grappling skills to defend his guard. If Kikuchi can end up on top of Aoki, he has the ability to replicate this kind of scenario, while connecting with strikes on the floor.
The major x-factor in this case is simply how unorthodox Aoki is. The slightest wrong movement can open up a submission opportunity and it can force fighters into considerable caution. Aoki is able to take the mount off of a simple trip takedown, and take his opponent's back off of a turn of the hip. He has the full arsenal of submission holds, including an array of nasty leglocks that he has honed with his friend and training partner Masakazu Imanari (Pictures).
Moreover, Aoki has only become increasingly more dangerous with his submissions over the last year. Is it a product of his rapid improvement and integration of his grappling skills into MMA, or was Kikuchi simply good enough to avoid his submissions the first time around?
Kikuchi most definitely has the skills to beat Aoki.
His stand-up is by no means incredible, but it is better than Aoki's, so the longer he can keep his distance and score points early, the better. His strength advantage over Aoki, who will be cutting no weight to make 167 pounds, is considerable, and it should give him an extra boost in the clinch. The potential is there for Kikuchi to take his title back.
The problem is that I cannot feel safe picking against Aoki in light of how he has treated recent opponents. The level of suddenness and unpredictability in his grappling skills is too immense. While Kikuchi would have to fight a diligent and fairly flawless fight, one single mistake can give Aoki the opportunity to steal a round, or the fight. So even in recognizing that a Kikuchi win is altogether possible, since I am forced to pick, I will keep cautious, and take Aoki by decision.
What a difference one year can make.
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In the case of Shooto's world middleweight title rematch, a single year is the difference between day and night, a full 180 — the difference between Kikuchi as a forecasted favorite in 2006 and Aoki being considered the inevitable winner in 2007.
It was a vastly different landscape just 12 months ago. Kikuchi had
established himself in the minds of MMA intelligentsia as one of
the absolute best competitors in the division. A seven fight
winning streak with the Shooto world title in tow, fans thirsted to
see Kikuchi make the leap across the Pacific and see Japan's top
fighter in the division duke it out in the UFC's robust 170-pound
class. With Shooto's middleweight class fairly stagnant as the
deadline for Kikuchi's first world title defense approached, there
were few options for him to defend his title against, save for a
fairly green Shinya Aoki
(Pictures).
Aoki, then 22, was thought to have huge upside as a fighter, but was considered too inexperienced for a tested and proven competitor like Kikuchi. True, he was coming off of a shockingly dominant performance against Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Pictures), one of Japan's best grapplers who Aoki almost effortlessly triangled and turned into a bloody mess. But there were questions over how fight-ready Hironaka was, having taken a year off from the ring due to injury — which, by the way, Aoki caused, breaking his arm in a grappling match — and the fact remained that a fighter like Kikuchi was a vastly different animal most thought would be too developed for Aoki.
Their meeting was a classic. A hotly competitive opening round saw strong offense from both fighters before the Kikuchi asserted himself in the second round with some solid ground-and-pound.
However, it was the third round that fans remember most, as Aoki quickly climbed on to the champion's back, locked up a tight body triangle, and stuck to Kikuchi for the bulk of the round. Try as he might, Kikuchi was powerless to remove Aoki from his back, and was forced to only try to control his wrists in an attempt to save himself from being choked while Aoki pounded on the champion’s head.
When the final bell rang, a noticeably dejected Kikuchi stood in his corner with his back turned, perhaps knowing what was coming. When Aoki's name rang through the Yoyogi Second Gymnasium, the new champion, wrought with emotion, burst into tears and embraced his trainer and mentor — a former Shooto world champion himself — Yuki Nakai (Pictures). Meanwhile, a dispirited Kikuchi exited the ring the moment the decision was announced.
Kikuchi has fought but once since the Aoki bout, easily dismantling an overmatched Ronald Jhun (Pictures) in Oct. That inactivity was also due to the six month ban enacted by Shooto officials against KILLER BEE team members after the infamous incident involving Kikuchi's cornerman and teammate "KID" Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) and physician Dr. Kenji Nakayama, in which "KID" kicked and shouted at the doctor as he attempted to tend to a cut sustained by Kikuchi in his match with Aoki.
During that same span of time, Aoki has emerged as one of the most compelling and thoroughly exciting fighters in the sport. The Kikuchi fight acted as a launch pad for his career, as he had one of the best years of any MMA fighter in 2006: sensational submissions over Jason Black (Pictures) and Clay French (Pictures) in the PRIDE spotlight culminated with his unbelievable submission of Joachim Hansen (Pictures) with a quick and easy gogoplata, of all things.
Both men's careers have gone in almost polar opposite directions. So what makes this rematch so compelling?
Aoki and Kikuchi are elite caliber competitors, and so there is inherent sense of value to the match-up to begin with. Moreover, there is an interesting clash of styles that creates a very strong possibility for either man to win the match-up. While many people remember their first bout by Aoki crawling up Kikuchi's back, it was a very close and competitive contest, and the most damaging offense was actually done by Kikuchi in the second round with his ground-and-pound. It's been shown that Aoki is in fact mortal and can be hurt, if his opponents can damage him in the stand-up game, or not become frozen inside his hyper-dangerous guard.
A stand up advantage belongs to Kikuchi in this bout. While Kikuchi doesn't have the stand-up skills of his teammates Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) and Koutetsu Boku (Pictures), he still has the privilege of training with high quality strikers, and has shown a better natural aptitude on his feet. Meanwhile, despite Aoki's occasional wacky hook kick, his stand-up is extremely limited, which results in him typically clinching with opponents as soon as possible to either initiate a takedown, or failing that, pulling guard and working to submit his foes from there.
However, Kikuchi has a strong upper body, and has superb takedowns and throws. A black belt in judo himself, he comes from a long line of judoka throughout his family lineage. All grappling skills considered, from takedowns, to control, to submission offense and defense, Kikuchi may be the best grappler that Aoki has faced, short of Hayato Sakurai (Pictures).
While the Sakurai fight was very close and competitive, “Mach” was able to control the top position on Aoki and had the grappling skills to defend his guard. If Kikuchi can end up on top of Aoki, he has the ability to replicate this kind of scenario, while connecting with strikes on the floor.
The major x-factor in this case is simply how unorthodox Aoki is. The slightest wrong movement can open up a submission opportunity and it can force fighters into considerable caution. Aoki is able to take the mount off of a simple trip takedown, and take his opponent's back off of a turn of the hip. He has the full arsenal of submission holds, including an array of nasty leglocks that he has honed with his friend and training partner Masakazu Imanari (Pictures).
Moreover, Aoki has only become increasingly more dangerous with his submissions over the last year. Is it a product of his rapid improvement and integration of his grappling skills into MMA, or was Kikuchi simply good enough to avoid his submissions the first time around?
Kikuchi most definitely has the skills to beat Aoki.
His stand-up is by no means incredible, but it is better than Aoki's, so the longer he can keep his distance and score points early, the better. His strength advantage over Aoki, who will be cutting no weight to make 167 pounds, is considerable, and it should give him an extra boost in the clinch. The potential is there for Kikuchi to take his title back.
The problem is that I cannot feel safe picking against Aoki in light of how he has treated recent opponents. The level of suddenness and unpredictability in his grappling skills is too immense. While Kikuchi would have to fight a diligent and fairly flawless fight, one single mistake can give Aoki the opportunity to steal a round, or the fight. So even in recognizing that a Kikuchi win is altogether possible, since I am forced to pick, I will keep cautious, and take Aoki by decision.
