Shinya Aoki has only lost three times in his professional MMA career that has spanned 23 fights and six years. His most recent loss came from Joachim Hansen at DREAM 5 back in July of last year, but before that bout, he hadnt lost since August 20th, 2005 to another prominent name in the Japanese MMA scene, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. Aoki will now have a chance to redeem that loss at DREAM.8 on April 5th from Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
MMAWeekly is confirming that Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai is now set to take place in the opening round of the DREAM.8 Welterweight Grand Prix. Normally, we would see DREAM try to set Sakurai and Aoki on opposite sides of the bracket in order to run through the Grand Prix and meet in the final, but FEG likely wants some star power to pull ratings after a less than stellar DREAM.7 Featherweight Grand Prix.
Stylistically, Aoki will have a superior advantage on the ground whereas Sakurai should have the strikers advantage on the feet. Sakurai has some good technical strikes, but Aoki seems to be one of the most elusive fighters to hit these days. He has very effective takedowns, and he transitions very well from the takedown to the submission. This should be a great matchup for hardcore fans looking to see Aoki put to the test.
DREAM should be hopefully putting together a few more quality bouts on this card. Aoki vs. Sakurai should generally draw more interest that some of the past events as both fighters have a following in Japan, but the card still lacks any other locked-in matchups. Hopefully that will be changing very soon.