Submission extraordinaire Shinya Aoki (26-5) will make his second appearance for Strikeforce on April 9 in San Diego against lightweight prospect Lyle Beerbohm, according to MMAJunkie.
Aoki has won six of his last seven MMA bouts, though he lost by KO against Yuichiro Nagashima on the Dec. 31 Dynamite!! 2010 show. The rules for the bout alternated between K-1 rules and MMA rules each round. Aoki survived the opening K-1 round but immediately ate a vicious knee to start the first MMA period.
Beerbohm (15-1) is coming off of the first loss of his career, a decision setback against grizzled veteran Pat Healy.
Match-up breakdown
Although Aoki’s striking is far from intimidating, he has arguably the best submission game in the sport. Typically, if he gets the fight to the ground, he submits you. Against Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Marcus Aurelio on Sept. 25, Aoki passed to mount with ease and never looked in danger anytime Aurelio tried to mount some offense.
However, Aoki doesn’t always seem incredibly motivated. Against Bu Kyung Jung in 2007, Aoki went the distance to secure the win even though it was Jung’s MMA debut. Jung’s record is now 0-4. And as impressive as Aoki was controlling the positioning against Aurelio, he never seemed close to finishing the fight.
Beerbohm began his career with a fairly one-dimensional game, relying on his takedowns to outmatch lower-level competition. But he’s come along way and put together an impressive grappling game of his own, racking up seven submission wins and getting a split decision victory over Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro.
The wrestling aspect could favor Beerbohm, but Aoki is very good in the clinch with his trips and even if Beerbohm does get him down, expect Aoki to work with sweeps and reversals. Don’t count out Beerbohm; Aoki could take him lightly and the Japanese fighter still isn’t all that used to the cage. But if Beerbohm couldn’t quite hang with Healy on the ground (no disrespect to Healy, who is very tough on the ground), he’s got a huge mountain to climb against Aoki.