Shinya
Aoki
and
Yoshihiro
Akiyama have thus far managed to beat back Father Time’s
advances, so perhaps it was inevitable that their paths would one
day cross.
The aging and accomplished veterans will match fists and wits in a
One
Championship “One X” lightweight attraction on Saturday at
Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Aoki carries a
four-fight winning streak into the cage. The former
Dream,
Shooto
and
One
Championship titleholder last appeared at One on TNT 4, where
he closed out a trilogy by submitting
Eduard
Folayang with an armbar in the first round of their April 28
rematch. Akiyama, meanwhile, has lost six of his past eight bouts.
He has not fought since he punched out
Sherif
Mohamed in the first round of their Feb. 28, 2020 clash at One
Championship “King of the Jungle.”
As Aoki and Akiyama move ever closer to their confrontation at 170
pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied them to
this point:
38: Years of age for Aoki, who was born on May 9, 1983 in Shizuoka,
Japan.
30: Aoki wins by submission, accounting for 64% of his career total
(47). His methods of choice: six armbars, four neck cranks, four
rear-naked chokes, three triangle chokes, two gogoplatas, two
triangle armbars, two arm-triangle chokes, one standing armlock,
one heel hook, one hammerlock, one Achilles lock, one keylock, one
twister and one brabo choke. Aoki owns four other wins by knockout
or technical knockout, 11 more by decision and another two by
disqualification.
5: Sub-minute finishes on the Aoki resume, with two of them having
taken place inside One Championship. He dismissed
Ev Ting with an
arm-triangle choke in 57 seconds at One Championship “Kingdom of
Heroes” on Oct. 6, 2018 and put
Honorio
Banario to sleep with a brabo choke in 54 seconds at One
Championship “Century” Part 2 on Oct. 13, 2019.
49: Professional rounds completed by Aoki as a mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 13 different occasions and
carries an 11-2 record in those bouts.
195: Combined victories between the eight opponents—Folayang,
Hayato
Sakurai (twice),
Christian
Lee,
Ben Askren,
Eddie
Alvarez,
Gilbert
Melendez,
Joachim
Hansen and
Jutaro
Nakao—who have defeated Aoki. They boast a cumulative .687
(195-82-7) winning percentage.
46: Years of age for Akiyama, who was born in Osaka, Japan, on July
29, 1975.
7: Akiyama victories by submission, accounting for 47% of his
career total (15). His methods of choice: five armbars and two
Ezekiel chokes. Akiyama holds six other victories by knockout or
technical knockout and two more by decision.
59: Seconds needed for Akiyama to tap
Carl Toomey
with an armbar at K-1 Hero’s 2 on July 6, 2005. Having occurred
nearly 17 years ago, it remains the fastest finish of his 24-fight
career.
13: Calendar years in which Akiyama has fought at least once. He
went 1-0 in 2004, 3-1 in 2005, 5-0 with one no contest in 2006, 1-0
with one no contest in 2007, 2-0 in 2008, 1-0 in 2009, 0-2 in 2010,
0-1 in 2011, 0-1 in 2012, 1-0 in 2014, 0-1 in 2015, 0-1 in 2019 and
1-0 in 2020.
.709: Cumulative winning percentage between the seven men—
Agilan
Thani,
Alberto
Mina,
Jake Shields,
Vitor
Belfort,
Michael
Bisping,
Chris Leben
and
Jerome Le
Banner—who have beaten Akiyama. They sport a combined record of
139-56-1.