Watch: Shinya Aoki suffers debilitating TKO loss to ‘Sexyama’

Shinya Aoki and ‘Sexyama’ Yoshihiro Akiyama at ONE X had one of the most exciting, back-and-forth, fights that evening. The two Japanese MMA legends went to war against each other.

ONE Championship recently shared a clip of the end of this fight on Instagram. ONE posted:

"Sexyama gave it his ALL 💥 [Yoshihiro Akiyama]."

In this bout, multi-time former ONE lightweight world champion Shinya Aoki dominated the majority of the first round. Aoki held back control and nearly finished this fight with a standing face crank, one of his signature moves. In the second round, however, Akiyama rallied back and was able to earn a technical knockout finish, via knees and strikes against his esteemed adversary.

Aoki and Akiyama are well respected Japanese MMA legends. 'Sexyama' Yoshihiro Akiyama has competed on the biggest combat sports stages in Japan and internationally. At ONE X, his exciting bout against Aoki earned him a performance bonus of $50,000.

Aoki made his professional debut in 2003 and has since competed in nearly 60 MMA fights, in addition to his competitive grappling bouts. The Japanese martial artist has black belts in both Judo and jiu-jitsu and has earned more than half of his victories in MMA via submission.

He held the ONE Lightweight World Championship for nearly three years. Even at age 38, Aoki is at the top of his game and refuses to walk away from professional competition. He plans to continue with his career indefinitely.

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MMA legend Shinya Aoki does not want to quit

In spite of the recent loss at ONE X, Aoki is still highly ranked in the lightweight division at No.3. He is one of the greatest world champions in the history of ONE. The Japanese MMA legend has had a long and storied in career in the ONE circle.

He made his professional debut when he was just 20 years old and nearly 20 years later he still does not want to stop. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, the former champion explained his point of view:

“I’m at my happiest when I’m concentrating on being a martial artist... If I could just train all day and do martial arts, that would be awesome.I do not want to work in a regular job, I just want to concentrate on martial arts... I want to keep being a martial artist for as long as possible. I want to keep doing it forever.”

The former ONE lightweight world champion sounds as though he has no intentions of walking away from MMA any time soon. Given his unique skill set, Shinya Aoki still has the opportunity to make a run for a world title, even at this stage in his career.