Shinya
Aoki
long ago established himself as mixed martial arts
royalty, so he undoubtedly expects the next generation to bare its
teeth whenever the opportunity to pursue him arises.
The former
Shooto,
Dream and
One
Championship titleholder will square off with
Saygid
Izagakhmaev in a
ONE 163 lightweight showcase on Saturday at Singapore Indoor
Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Aoki has rattled off four wins
across his past five outings. He last competed at ONE X, where he
succumbed to punches from
Yoshihiro
Akiyama in the second round of their March 26 clash.
Izagakhmaev, meanwhile, steps into the cage on the strength of a
four-fight winning streak. He last appeared on Sept. 29, when he
was awarded a unanimous decision over
Lipeng
Zhang in their three-round ONE 161 pairing.
As Aoki and Izagakhmaev make final preparations ahead of their
upcoming battle at 170 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that
have accompanied them to this point:
39: Years of age for Aoki, who was born in Shizuoka, Japan, on May
9, 1983.
4: Aoki wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 9%
of his career total (47). His complete list of victims:
Shannon
Wiratchai,
Kazushi
Sakuraba,
Antonio
McKee and
Kuniyoshi
Hironaka. Aoki holds 30 other wins by submission (64%), 11 more
by decision (23%) and two others by disqualification (4%).
20: Consecutive calendar years in which Aoki has fought at least
once. In addition to his 0-1 mark in 2022, he went 2-0 in 2003, 1-1
in 2004, 3-1 in 2005, 5-0 in 2006, 3-0 in 2007, 5-1 with one no
contest in 2008, 4-1 in 2009, 3-1 in 2010, 4-0 in 2011, 2-1 in
2012, 3-0 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014, 2-0 in 2015, 0-1 in 2016, 0-1 in
2017, 3-0 in 2018, 2-1 in 2019, 1-0 in 2020 and 2-0 in 2021.
5: Sub-minute finishes on the Aoki resume, with two of them having
taken place in One Championship. He submitted
Ev Ting with an
arm-triangle choke in 57 seconds at ONE “Kingdom of Heroes” on Oct.
6, 2018 and put
Honorio
Banario to sleep with a brabo choke in 54 seconds at ONE
“Century” Part 2 on Oct. 13, 2019.
212: Combined victories between the nine opponents—Akiyama,
Hayato
Sakurai (twice),
Christian
Lee,
Ben Askren,
Eduard
Folayang,
Eddie
Alvarez,
Gilbert
Melendez,
Joachim
Hansen and
Jutaro
Nakao—who have defeated Aoki. They sport a cumulative .700
winning percentage at 212-89-7.
28: Years of age for Izagakhmaev, who was born on Sept. 3, 1994 in
Makhachkala, Russia.
13: Izagakhmaev victories by submission, accounting for 62% of his
career total (21). His methods of choice: five armbars, three
rear-naked chokes, two triangle chokes, one arm-triangle choke, one
kimura and one brabo choke. Izagakhmaev owns two other victories by
knockout or technical knockout (10%) and six more by decision
(28%).
50: Seconds needed for Izagakhmaev to put away
Artem Savov
with an armbar at a Liga Kavkaz show on Aug. 15, 1993. More than
nine years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
35: Rounds completed by Izagakhmaev as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on seven different occasions and
carries a 6-1 record in those bouts.
.704: Cumulative winning percentage between the two
opponents—
Carlston
Harris and
Elias
Silverio—who have beaten Izagakhmaev. They boast a combined
record of 34-14-1.