Shinya Aoki Returns to RIZIN a Decade Later, Chasing Closure vs Asakura

Ten years after he ran through Kazushi Sakuraba in six minutes to headline the very first RIZIN card in 2015, Shinya Aoki is walking back to that ring. At 43, "Tobikan Judan" is booked in the co-main event of Thursday's Super RIZIN 5 in Osaka against Mikuru Asakura, a 34-year-old striker sitting at 13-5 under the RIZIN banner. It's a comeback Aoki says he never really expected to get.

After his one RIZIN appearance a decade ago, Aoki signed with ONE and became lightweight champion, closing out his last three fights there in Japan — submissions over John Lineker and Eduard Folayang before a loss to Hiroyuki Tetsuka. But those bouts, in his telling, don't count as fighting in Japan. ONE is an international brand chasing a global audience, and Aoki frames this return as something different: fighting for a Japanese promotion, for Japanese fans, in the tradition that runs back through PRIDE and the UWF days.

Chasing Closure for DREAM

Aoki's stated motivation isn't nostalgia or reaching younger fans. It's unfinished business with DREAM, the promotion founded by former PRIDE executives in 2008. Across four years it staged 24 events and featured names like Gegard Mousasi (49-9-2), Eddie Alvarez, Ronaldo Souza, Alistair Overeem (47-19) and Sakuraba himself — then simply faded out. Aoki says the whole thing ended in limbo, and his number-one priority now is providing the closure DREAM never got. When RIZIN eventually rose from those ashes under ex-PRIDE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the circle stayed open.

He admits he was surprised RIZIN offered him a deal, and equally surprised by how warmly fans welcomed him back after a month and a half of buildup. Aoki is realistic about what he's returning to, though. He describes today's RIZIN as a completely different animal from PRIDE — a sport called MMA rather than the spectacle he grew up in. He's wondered aloud whether he should have come back sooner, before landing on the idea that the long absence itself built the anticipation.

The generational gap is stark. Asakura was nine years old when Aoki debuted in 2003, and he arrives off a September 2025 title loss to Razhabali Shaydullaev, though his résumé includes a win over current RIZIN champ Luiz Gustavo plus former titleholders Kleber Koike and Chihiro Suzuki. Aoki points out he once fought Antonio McKee — whose son AJ McKee is on the same Osaka card — as proof of how far time has traveled.

As for what's left, Aoki says he's already transitioning toward retirement life and has no interest in chasing a belt in 2026. He'd rather take interesting matchups in places he's never fought, naming Brazil and Russia, and floated the idea of a "legend fight" slot with MVP MMA, the new outfit recently merged with RIZIN's PFL partner. A dream bout with B.J. Penn, he concedes, is almost impossible. First, there's Asakura, and the closure he's waited a decade to find.