Can Kai Asakura end 31 years of Japanese UFC heartbreak?
At the big New Year’s Eve show in Tokyo to close out 2009, he fought Sengoku lightweight champ Mizota Hirota as part of a cross-promotional, in-country rivalry. Aoki snapped his arm with a hammerlock in the first round, then stood over him and put his middle finger directly in Hirota’s face as he lay there defeated with his useless arm at his side.