The largest global sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), returns with its first live event in 2021, ONE: UNBREAKABLE, scheduled for Friday, 22 January at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Among the athletes competing on the event are former ONE Lightweight World Champion and #4-ranked lightweight Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki of Japan, and #2-ranked women’s atomweight mixed martial arts contender Meng Bo of China. Aoki is set to face former James Nakashima of the United States, while Meng takes on former ONE Women’s Strawweight World Title challenger Samara “Marituba” Santos of Brazil.
Shinya Aoki spoke to ONE Championship ahead of her upcoming bout. Here’s what he had to say:
On James Nakashima’s strengths and weaknesses:
“He is a well-rounded fighter. While nothing in particular jumps out at me, my impression of him is that he is well-balanced, both in terms of striking and grappling — just good all around. What I mean by nothing really jumps out at me, is you need to look at it from another perspective. Because nothing significantly jumps out at me, you don’t really know how to fight him. If you don’t know how to fight someone, you can’t just fixate on one aspect of their game. In other words, you can’t gamble. You can’t take a risk.”
On what he expects to happen in the fight:
“People may assume it will end up being a grappling match. But the interesting aspect of mixed martial arts is that, for example, if someone that isn’t a striker, goes against a good striker, and if their grappling skills are strong enough, they can apply pressure through their grappling skills. Based on that, the opponent’s striking skills become a weakness, and as such, it doesn’t end up being striking versus striking or grappling versus grappling. So, when people assume it’s going to be a grappling match, sure, it might be. But even historically, if two grapplers come together, it doesn’t always end up being a grappling match. It’s the same with two strikers coming together, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be a stand-up fight. That is the interesting aspect of mixed martial arts. I don’t know what kind of fight it will be. I’ll have to face him and see. This is what makes it fun.”
On facing an American fighter again:
“After watching Nakashima’s last bout (vs. Kiamrian Abbasov for the ONE Welterweight World Championship), he seems strong and I think he has the strength of a top contender. To be able to fight against a strong opponent, simply put, I’m grateful. As this is the first time I will be fighting a North American fighter on the ONE stage, I’ve fought fighters from the US and beaten them before, but it’s something that I would like to do every few years or so. I’ll be 38 soon, so to be able to do something like this, I’m grateful, and to be able to take on a fight like this is exciting.”
