Shinya Aoki
ONE Championship lightweight titleholder Shinya Aoki will look for his eighth straight win and second title defense in May.
Officials today announced Aoki (37-6) is slated to meet the organization’s No. 1 155-pound contender, Koji Ando (11-3-2), at “ONE Championship 28: Warrior’s Quest.”
The event takes place May 22 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore and streams as an online pay-per-view in North America.
Currently, the title fight is the only official booking for the card.
Aoki, a former DREAM and Shooto champion, was once one of the sport’s highest-ranked lightweights. However, he’s shown little interest in fighting for the UFC, and his involvement with other North American promotions such as Strikeforce and Bellator were limited to one-fight stints.
The 31-year-old Japanese fighter and submission specialist is content fighting in Asia, and he’s excelled while posting a 14-1 record (with 11 submissions) since a 2010 Strikeforce title loss to Gilbert Melendez. However, his quality of competition has waned in recent years and has left the 12-year-old pro out of most rankings, including the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings.
He now faces Ando, a 30-year-old Japanese fighter and former Legend FC champion who’s on an upswing while boasting a five-fight winning streak. It includes stoppage wins over Rafael Nunes (10-0 at the time) and Zorobabel Moreira (7-2) in his two recent ONE FC appearances.
For more on ONE Championship 28, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.
Filed under: MMA Rumors, News
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