Following his embarrassing loss to Yuichiro Nagashima last month at K-1 Dynamite!! 2010, Japanese lightweight Shinya Aoki is reportedly thinking of quitting the sport, Daniel Herbertson reports at MMAFighting.com.
Sources close to Shinya Aoki have indicated that the DREAM lightweight champion was contemplating retirement following his humiliating knockout loss to Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima at Dynamite!!
Aoki has clearly been troubled following the loss, going so far as to delete his @waoki Twitter account (although it appears that Aoki has started a new private account under the alias @jyotaronawo) after being harassed by Nagashima fans and has privately expressed an interest in quitting MMA to focus on his teaching duties at the Deep official gym.
Despite Aoki's apparent depression, if I were a betting man, I'd wager that we would see a return of the Baka Survivor in 2011. FEG are currently undergoing restructuring and planning and we should know more about the future of the promoter and lightweight ace by the end of January.
This is interesting. Aoki has generally not taken losses well and a decision like this, quite frankly, wouldn't be surprising at all. Aoki, like many fighters in this sport, is a front-runner. When things are going good, they're great, but when a bit of adversity rears its head, well, things go downhill fast. There's no doubt Aoki has special talent, but his head is limiting him right now. Hopefully he continues to compete in MMA.
You can read all the latest news from Japan in Herbertson's "Nippon Weekly" column at MMAFighting.com.
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