KillerShark1985

like it or not multiple promotions are always going to exist so its best they work together than not, the only cases where it doe snot work is if they are not wiling to work together like in Boxing, where as if you take a look at Football/Soccer for example, few European football fans would argue that The Champions League is the ultimate club football competition and this is a result of all major league across Europe working together, but then lets face it greedy American organisations dont believe in cooperation they just want all the money to be made in the sport for themselves and the good of the sport and what the fans want to see gets left behind and the sick thing is many Americans just see this as the way it is and fail to see that working together is better, but lets be honest Americans are hardly known for working with others, you only seen to understand greed.

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Life B Ez

I wouldn't mind seeing him fight Noons. I think SF wants to set up a rubber match with Thompson and Gil other wise I wouldn't mind seeing him fight Thompson.

Aoki is going to crumble against anyone with good wrestling, he needs to stay in Japan and fight. He's not going to beat anyone in a cage. Not to mention I don't believe he cuts very much weight, so he'll be 10-20 pounds lighter than anyone he fights here in the states.

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"Discipline Hurts Less Than Regret"

rockybalboa25

I have no idea how European soccer works. So I think your analogy is somewhat lost on me. The best example I see as an analogy is basketball. In the beginning, there were two main orgainizations NBA and ABA like UFC and PRIDE. Just like those two one swallowed up the other and took the best players and ideas implemented them, and got rid of what didn't work. There are still small US organizations that eventually funnel some players into the NBA. Also the European leagues have some great talent, most of which eventually come play in the NBA. I think that is a great model as well.

As far as Americans not working well with others, you're originally talking about an American promotion strikeforce. Like I said I would comment on soccer but don't know anything about it.

osmium

Yeah, Europeans are devoid of avarice. Especially Germany and the UK.

Calibretto9

As has been said in the thread, I think anytime Aoki faces a wrestler he's going to get pounded. I'd definitely like to see more SF/Dream matchups with him, but I think he's going to come out on the losing end of those fights more often than not. I do think that fighting in the ring will benefit him as there is less room in a ring to keep away from him, but we'll see.

I think Melendez tools him even worse in the rematch.

Shoegazer

I dunno...I can see Aoki submitting many aggressive wrestlers. I think it takes a pretty complete game of wrestling and striking to fight him off for 3+ rounds.

I'm certainly not convinced by the Melendez fight that Aoki is not a top 10 lightweight, especially in light of his last win. Yes, Melendez easily won each and every round, but Melendez was also nowhere near ending the fight. And yeah, he jumped into Aoki's guard several times and hit him in the face, but he was playing it moderately safe each time - fighting to outscore, first and foremost. Aoki looked lost to me for most of that fight, sorta like most japanese fighters look their first time in a cage. Credit Melendez for sure, it was great gameplan and Melendez had the rounded skills and discipline to pull it off. But I didn't see anything that made me think Aoki was necessarily out of his league. I think he now knows the power and speed of the american fighters, as well as their defensive use of wrestling, and will adjust accordingly. I have a hunch he shocks Melendez should they meet again.

Seriously though, I just can't imagine why Melendez would even want a rematch unless it was worth a LOT of money

leifdawg

Even if Aoki beats Melendez. Melendez is still at best the #5 LW in the USA behind Edgar, Penn, Florian, and Maynard. I think guys like Heurta, Guida, Diego Sanchez, and Sotiropolis would all be pick 'ems vs Melendez.

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BobbyCooper

Shinya might be one dimensional.. but he is by far the best one dimensional grappler in the World. Bring on Maia, Werdum, Jake Shields..

There is really nobody who uses it so effectively!

leifdawg

Than why did he avoid the ground with Ribero?

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BobbyCooper

Because he won the striking exchanges leif

He felt great on his feet and his kicks had beat Ribero up. In fact Ribero was the one who tried to take down Aoki.

He won that fight on his feet!