“When I cannot do martial arts at this level” - Shinya Aoki bares the only reasons why he would call it a career

Shinya Aoki bared all in a recent interview with ONE Championship. Celebrating his 10-year anniversary with the Singapore-based promotion, he’s looking back at some of the most memorable events of his career.

Over the last decade, the submission wizard has fought the toughest MMA fighters on the planet, touching gloves with the likes of fellow living legends Eduard Folayang and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Outlasting the majority of his generation, the former ONE lightweight world champion continues to prove he’s on a different level.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Shinya Aoki gave the only reason he would call it a career:

“When I can no longer improve myself, I want to say I quit, simply. When I cannot do martial arts at this level, mentally, physically, or if I cannot have this passion, I will say I’m done. I don’t want to show off when I retire. I’d say I’m done when there’s no one who wants to see me fight anymore. If I don’t have a feeling to learn new things in this sport, if I cannot update myself, I will quit.”

Shinya Akoi is buckling up for his sixteenth MMA matchup with ONE Championship at ONE 163: Akimoto vs. Petchtanong on Saturday, November 19. He is set to go up against Dagestani native Saygid Izagakhmaev in a lightweight rubber match to give the grappling prospect the biggest test of his career.

So far, Izagakhmaev has been nothing short of impressive. The Eagles MMA prospect enters the ring with back-to-back victories this year against Zhang Lipeng and James Nakashima, doing so with minimal effort.

Leaping to the number four spot in the rankings in a short time, Izagakhmaev’s greatest weapon is his freestyle wrestling. So, it will be intriguing to see how well he matches up to Shinya Aoki’s legendary jiu-jitsu style.

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Shinya Aoki on the importance of educating fans about grappling

Shinya Aoki is pleased to see how grappling has evolved under ONE Championship. The martial arts platform does something that no other organization has done which is bring a didactic element to all their matches.

Aoki was one of the first grapplers to represent submission grappling on the world stage back in May 2017 with BJJ star ‘Lion Killer’ Garry Tonon. He was unfortunately submitted by the American icon within the seven-minute mark in front of thousands of Asian fans, but maintained his status as a world-class submission specialist.

So, it was only appropriate to have him feature in a submission grappling comeback match at ONE Championship’s 10-year anniversary with BJJ prodigy Kade Ruotolo.

Speaking to Aoki, ONE commentator Mitch Chilson asked the grappling expert if was pleased with how ONE has been promoting the sport thus far. ‘Tobikan Judan’ said:

“There are more people who watch grappling now, but there is a difference between just watching and understanding what grappling is about. ONE needs both. They need more people watching, while also educating them on the sport.”

Watch the full interview with Aoki below: