Kosuke Minowa shared an interesting piece of Japanese MMA history in a recent tweet. The writer, who is a good friend of Shinya Aoki‘s was discussing the controversy surrounding Yuta Kubo’s loss to Shibatar.
He recalled the Rizin World Grand Prix 2015 event and says Aoki was taking his fight with Kazushi Sakuraba so seriously that he refused to eat any of the food provided in the dressing room in case it was poisoned:
RIZIN初陣の青木vs桜庭のとき、青木真也は計量の体重計に細工がされてないからチェックし、控室の食べ物は毒が盛られてるかもしれないと言って一切口をつけなかった。それくらいの真剣さを間近で見てきたから、シバターがタチ悪いにせよ久保さんも緩いと思わざるを得ない。
— 箕輪厚介 (@minowanowa) January 2, 2022
Minowa compares Aoki’s ultra serious approach to this fight, which he won with a first round submission, to Kubo and Shibatar’s relaxed approach to their contest. The two men reportedly communicated in advance and had a gentleman’s agreement about how long the fight would last.
Supposedly Shibatar reneged on an agreement to make the fight last two rounds. Minowa thinks that even if this is the case Kubo should have been taking the contest more seriously.
Whatever happened between Kubo and Shibatar one thing is for sure: no-one could accuse Shinya Aoki of not taking his fights seriously!
