“Bring everything out to a fight” - Shinya Aoki explains his motivation to compete 

Ten years in ONE Championship seems to have flown by for Shinya Aoki, and he’s never been in a boring fight at any point.

Reflecting on his mindset as he battles opponents like Christian Lee or Eduard Folayang, Aoki opened up in an interview with ONE Championship:

"I want to be real, I want to produce exciting fights. So, it’s simple. Ok [Rae Yoon] won against Christian [Lee] but I was the one who most drove Christian into a corner. What I want to do is to push everyone to bring everything out to a fight. Bring your spirit, belief, the thing you’ve been doing, and put in the fight. It’s important thing for me."

Talk can be cheap, but there are stats to back up Shinya Aoki’s claim of bringing the intensity to every foe. Of his sixteen fights with ONE Championship, only two have gone the distance. In his decade-long career with ONE, he’s fought the likes of Ben Askren, Christian Lee, Eduard Folayang, and James Nakashima.

He’ll enter the ONE circle again on November 19th against Saygid Izagakhmaev, and fans can be sure that Aoki will be hunting for the finish as soon as the fight starts- as he always does.

---

Shinya Aoki gives condition for retirement from MMA

Despite being 39 years old and coming off a loss, Shinya Aoki is by no means on a downturn in his MMA career. Before the loss, he’d won four in a row and was likely ahead against Yoshihiro Akiyama at ONE: Century last March.

Still, the Japanese mainstay has certainly thought about retirement. Speaking to ONE Championship, Aoki said,

“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.”

He’s certainly a way off from losing fan interest, and only he can decide if his motivations dry up. Much about Shinya Aoki’s future and if he can hang with the younger generation will become more clear in his fight with Izagakhmaev next month. The Dagestani wrestler is undefeated in ONE and will be looking to take Aoki’s spot in the rankings.

ONE 163 goes down from Singapore on November 19th. The card features a lightweight kickboxing world title fight between Hiroki Akimoto and Muay Thai striker Petchtanong. That fight and Aoki’s are just two of several fights featuring Japanese fighters.