WATCH: Shinya Aoki with nasty face crank finish of James Nakashima

Shinya Aoki has made a career out of pulling out incredible wins over his opponents, whatever their size may be.

Ahead of his fight at ONE 163, check out Aoki's brutal finish of James Nakashima at ONE: Unbreakable last year. The video was posted on ONE Championship's YouTube channel:

Check out Aoki finishing Nakashima below:

At the time, Nakashima was in his athletic prime and had a 12-1 record, including a 3-1 record in the welterweight ranks. In his first foray into the lightweight division, he appeared to be much bigger and stronger than Aoki.

However, that didn’t stop 'Tobikan Judan' from climbing onto Nakashima’s back and breaking down his opponent's posture. After locking in one hook and grabbing Nakashima's wrist, Aoki jumped into the full choking position against the cage.

The body triangle around Nakashima’s ribs gave the American multiple points of pain, the fight slipping away into a dark place. The submission finish came quickly for Shinya Aoki, locking in a half rear-naked choke, half face crank to get the tap.

It was Aoki’s eighth submission finish in ONE Championship and his 46th win overall.

Next week, he’ll put his dazzling grappling skills to the test against another young lion in Saygid Izagakhmaev, who's a protege of the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov. Aoki will be looking to close out the year with a win against one of the most promising fighters in the division today.

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Saygid Izagakhmaev plans knockout of Shinya Aoki and a big bonus check

While it’s no secret that Aoki would love nothing more than to drag his Russian foe to the mat and make him tap, Izagakhmaev intends on doing the exact opposite.

In an interview with ONE Championship, Saygid Izagakhmaev expressed his desire to get a big knockout win over the Japanese legend:

“I would like to finish this fight striking. I think it’s going to end this way. [My goal is] to win this fight ahead of time and shout from the ring: ‘[ONE CEO] Chatri, give me my US$50,000!’”

Considering how only a handful of men have finished Shinya Aoki (nine out of 48 fights), knocking him out would certainly warrant a bonus check. Getting a finish on the feet would be a special kind of challenge for Izagakhmaev, who has only finished two of his 23 fights by TKO or knockout.

By contrast, he’s won 12 by submission. The Russian will be hunting for a landmark debut year in ONE Championship after fighting for the first time in the circle in January against James Nakashima, a common opponent for Shinya Aoki.

Izagakhmaev beat both Nakashima and Zhang Lipeng this year and will look to go 3-0 in 2022 with a win over Shinya Aoki. ONE 163 goes down on November 19 in Singapore, featuring a bantamweight kickboxing world title fight between Hiroki Akimoto and Petchtanong Petchfergus in the main event of the card.