Shinya Aoki spent the better part of 15 minutes lying on top of Marcus Aurelio at Dream 16 Saturday, winning a dominant unanimous decision and showing once again that he's the best lightweight fighting in Japan.
Aoki has always had a good ground game and some of the best submissions in the sport, but he looks like he's working on his wrestling, as he was able to take Aurelio down and completely control him. This fight was never close.
Aoki, who was not wearing his trademark grappling pants, took Aurelio down early in the fight and spent most of the first round on top, controlling Aurelio's legs with a triangle. Aoki's version of ground and pound isn't exactly the most punishing around, but he did bloody Aurelio's face with punches. In the second round it was more of the same, and although Aoki had quite a bit of Aurelio's blood on his hands and arms by the end of it, the fight really didn't have too much action.
It was a solid win for Aoki, but not a spectacular one. Aurelio has never been finished in 29 pro fights, so there's no shame in Aoki's failure to end the fight, but there was also not very much excitement to the show Aoki put on.
Aoki improved his record to 25-5, and the biggest question now is whether there are any challenges left for him in Japan. Although he lost to Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez when he fought in the U.S. in April, he's pretty well cleaned out the division in his homeland.
Aoki has always had a good ground game and some of the best submissions in the sport, but he looks like he's working on his wrestling, as he was able to take Aurelio down and completely control him. This fight was never close.
Aoki, who was not wearing his trademark grappling pants, took Aurelio down early in the fight and spent most of the first round on top, controlling Aurelio's legs with a triangle. Aoki's version of ground and pound isn't exactly the most punishing around, but he did bloody Aurelio's face with punches. In the second round it was more of the same, and although Aoki had quite a bit of Aurelio's blood on his hands and arms by the end of it, the fight really didn't have too much action.
It was a solid win for Aoki, but not a spectacular one. Aurelio has never been finished in 29 pro fights, so there's no shame in Aoki's failure to end the fight, but there was also not very much excitement to the show Aoki put on.
Aoki improved his record to 25-5, and the biggest question now is whether there are any challenges left for him in Japan. Although he lost to Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez when he fought in the U.S. in April, he's pretty well cleaned out the division in his homeland.