Aoki To Face Antonio Mckee At DREAM. 18

It has just been announced that Shinya Aoki will be facing Antonio Mckee at DREAM 18 – GLORY 4 which will take place at Japan’s Saitama Arena on the 31st of December 2012.

For weeks it was speculated as to whom Asia’s best lightweight would be facing and now finally his opponent has been revealed. Aoki (31-6-1) is coming off a very impressive win over French MMA champion, Arnaud Lepont at ONE FC: Rise of Kings. Aoki, who fights out of Asia’s best fight gym, Evolve MMA, is currently under the ONE FC roster but will be able to appear on the DREAM – GLORY fight card as both promotions are part of the ONE FC Network.

His opponent Antonio Mckee (28-4-2) is a veteran of the sport who was initially supposed to face Shinya Aoki last year at DREAM 17: Fight for Japan but withdrew from the match up. Mckee had cited Visa issues as reason from pulling out. He is a former MFC champion and a veteran of the now defunct IFL. Mckee will be entering this bout riding on a 3 fight win streak.

Other MMA bouts scheduled for DREAM 18 include Bibiano Fernandes vs Yoshiro Maeda, Melvin Manhoef vs Denis Kang and Phil Baroni vs Hayato Sakurai.

http://www.thefightnation.com/shinya-aoki-to-face-antonio-mckee-at-dream-18/

Can McKee fight off the sub? Will he be able to use his experience to counter control Aoki? #3 VS. #7 in the G-MMA rankings, I'm expecting a high level grappling chess match with the key being control for ground strikes.

AudaxSmoke wrote:Can McKee fight off the sub? Will he be able to use his experience to counter control Aoki? #3 VS. #7 in the G-MMA rankings, I'm expecting a high level grappling chess match with the key being control for ground strikes.

I really hope Aoki chokes out McKee or puts him in a painful submission..

^If that is a photoshop job I apologize to McKee

Such a MAJOR improvement to the previously announced fight.

This fight can be ridiculously dangerous for Aoki. McKee only seems to struggle with more athletic, younger wrestlers. It's dangerous in the sense that Aoki is most comfortable off his back and McKee is most comfortable when he has top control.

The thing that swings this fight in Aoki's favor is the fact that McKee has never really fought anyone with as high caliber submission grappling that Aoki has, which puts McKee's normally stifling top game into question for this fight.

Aoki can pull a sub out of nowhere, hope for the well traveled McKee to maybe gas (less likely if this doesn't include a ten minute first) and lock him into something from that, or keep him at bay with kicks like he showed in the Shaolin fight. The problem that arises with the latter strategy is that McKee is pretty powerful for his age and could easily drop Aoki.

Extremely close fight and i'm really looking forward to this one.

A 10 minute first round would definitely tilt this bout more in Aoki's favor.

This fight is currently set to headline the DREAM portion of the card. It will, however, be a non-title fight since Aoki relinquished the championship.

with no elbows i think mckee will get sub by aoki...but still rooting for my friend mandingo...

What is that a pciture of in Willie's AV and Lofgren's sig?


Lofgren=Johan?

marchegiano wrote:What is that a pciture of in Willie's AV and Lofgren's sig?


Lofgren=Johan?

Yes I´m Johan. I´m not sure if that picture is real or not.

AudaxSmoke wrote:Can McKee fight off the sub? Will he be able to use his experience to counter control Aoki? #3 VS. #7 in the G-MMA rankings, I'm expecting a high level grappling chess match with the key being control for ground strikes.

Nice breakdown. Yup, two top LWs going head-to-head. GLORY/DREAM and ONE FC are delivering on NYE.

Lofgren wrote:

AudaxSmoke wrote:Can McKee fight off the sub? Will he be able to use his experience to counter control Aoki? #3 VS. #7 in the G-MMA rankings, I'm expecting a high level grappling chess match with the key being control for ground strikes.

I really hope Aoki chokes out McKee or puts him in a painful submission..

Same here. Hoping for a 1st round Aoki heel hook.

wekka wrote:Such a MAJOR improvement to the previously announced fight.

This fight can be ridiculously dangerous for Aoki. McKee only seems to struggle with more athletic, younger wrestlers. It's dangerous in the sense that Aoki is most comfortable off his back and McKee is most comfortable when he has top control.

The thing that swings this fight in Aoki's favor is the fact that McKee has never really fought anyone with as high caliber submission grappling that Aoki has, which puts McKee's normally stifling top game into question for this fight.

Aoki can pull a sub out of nowhere, hope for the well traveled McKee to maybe gas (less likely if this doesn't include a ten minute first) and lock him into something from that, or keep him at bay with kicks like he showed in the Shaolin fight. The problem that arises with the latter strategy is that McKee is pretty powerful for his age and could easily drop Aoki.

Extremely close fight and i'm really looking forward to this one.

Yeah, I had a feeling that Ill Will fight wouldn't be happening. That fight made absolutely no sense. This fight, on the other hand, is legit. Two top LWs on NYE.

This is a dangerous fight for Aoki due to the wrestling and the fact that in 32 fights, McKee has only been subbed one time and that was 11 years ago. However, like you said, he has never fought a sub. grappler at Aoki's level before (not many have unless they actually faced Aoki). Hoping Aoki can finish this on the ground.

AudaxSmoke wrote:A 10 minute first round would definitely tilt this bout more in Aoki's favor.

Agreed. I'm hoping they go with that for this event and future DREAM events. That and soccer kicks and stomps in addition to the knees.

SandmanFC wrote:This fight is currently set to headline the DREAM portion of the card. It will, however, be a non-title fight since Aoki relinquished the championship.

Yup...Hopefully they make the Takaya/Kawajiri fight and make it for the belt.