Shinya Aoki: 'I want to be like Gegard Mousasi'

Props: MMA Fighting

Quoteworthy:

"As long as I am a fighter, and especially because I fight in the front line, I am always going to feel like 'What if I lose?' or 'This might end of my career if I lose.' That's why I want to be like Gegard Mousasi. I think he understands his own heart, and I would like to be like him. He has no ups and downs, and he is able to do anything, and he is strong. He's very straightforward in a good way. He's 25, so he is two years younger than me, but he's very stable. He's close to how Mirko CroCop was when he was in good shape, and very close to Fedor Emelianenko. This time around, he wasn't able to make weight, but Mousasi's opponent Jake O'Brien isn't a weak fighter. In their fight O'Brien looked like a fish out of water, but normally he's not like that at all. It's just that his opponent was Mousasi. I think he's great. I want to be like him."

DREAM Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki aspires to reach the level of self awareness displayed by fellow International star Gegard Mousasi. "The Tobikan Judan" finished Tatsuya Kawajiri at DREAM 15 to retain his title after being stifled by Gilbert Melendez in his trip to "Nashville" last April. Perhaps the disposal of Kawajiri, along with his bone crunching submission of Mizuto Hirota at FieLDS Dynamite!! 2009, makes him one of the world's most feared lightweights? Or is he simply a big fish in a little pond? And would a Mousasi-like demeanor make him even more dangerous?