What a way to start off the year! Ehhh, you’ll cringe!! In

What a way to start off the year! Ehhh, you’ll cringe!!

In what was perhaps Shinya Aoki’s most devastating win to date, the Dream lightweight champion snapped the arm of Sengoku titleholder Mizuto Hirota at K-1 “Dynamite: The Power of Courage 2009” on Thursday before 45,606 fans at the Saitama Super Arena.

After a quick takedown and mount, Aoki pinned the Sengoku slugger’s right arm behind his back in an awkward hammerlock. He dropped several punches on Hirota before twisting the hammerlock in the opposite direction, breaking it perpendicular to Hirota’s torso and forcing referee Yuji Shimada to intervene at 2:17. An irreverent Aoki returned to his feet and flipped off the injured Hirota as he lay on the mat.

Aoki’s spite was not reserved solely for the Sengoku lightweight champion. He ran a circuit around the ring, flipping off the crowd, which had chanted Hirota’s name only moments earlier.

In the co-headliner, 2008 Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii made his long-awaited mixed martial arts debut against Hidehiko Yoshida, who won Olympic gold 17 years ago. The intended passing of the torch between the two did not go as planned, as Yoshida, 40, walked away with a unanimous decision win over the coveted 23-year-old prospect.

Today, Shinya Aoki just apologized for his behavior!

“After my fight, I was excited, and so I did something rude that I should apologize for. But that showed just how excited I was over that fight…When I had his arm behind his back, I could feel it popping. I thought, ‘Well, this guy’s pride just won’t let him tap, will it?’ So without hesitation, I broke it. I heard it break, and I thought, ‘Ah, there, I just broke it.’ I was stopped afterward, but even if I hadn’t been, continuing to break it more would have been fine by me…Dream got a solid win [with my victory over Hirota], so that was good, but we finished off Sengoku. Although Sengoku was already finished from the very beginning. When Sasahara tells me to go and do something, I do it, and that’s how I live my life. If Sasahara tells me to go to Strikeforce and take them out or ‘Go and kill that guy,’ I’m going to do it. Even if he tells me to go take out Tanigawa, I’d do that too.”

Nice apology!

Photo Courtesy: FEG Inc.