The Japanese mixed martial arts star Shinya Aoki, widely regarded as one of the best submission artists in the world, found another victim in defeating the American David Gardner in a welterweight fight at Dream 7 early Sunday morning in Japan.Aoki got Gardner in a rear-naked choke at 5:58 of the first round, improving his MMA record to 20-3, with 12 wins by submission. This was Aoki's first fight at welterweight; next month at Dream.8 he'll fight in the first round of Dream's welterweight tournament.
Dream.7 also marked the first round of Dream's featherweight tournament, with Masakazu Iminari, Hiroyuki Takaya, Yoshiro Maeda, Abel Cullum, Joe Warren and Bibiano Fernandes all winning and moving on to the second round.
The full Dream 7 MMA results are below:
Masakazu Iminari beat Atsushi Yamamoto by split decision
Hiroyuki Takaya beat Jong Won Kim by second-round TKO (punches)
Yoshiro Maeda beat Micah Miller by unanimous decision
Tatsuya Kawajiri beat Ross Ebanez by first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Shinya Aoki beat David Gardner by first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Mitsuhiro Ishida beat Daisuke Nakamura by unanimous decision
Abel Cullum beat Akiyo Nishiura by unanimous decision
Joe Warren beat Chase Beebe by first-round TKO (cut)
Bibiano Fernandes beat Takafumi Otsuka by unanimous decision
UPDATE: Below is the video of the Aoki-Gardner fight, showing Gardner, like an idiot, waving and yelling, "Hello, Japan" right before Aoki submits him:
Video via Chris Nelson of Bloody Elbow. More on Dream.7 at MMA Junkie and Sherdog.
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