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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
DREAM Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki will return later this month at DREAM 16 when he takes on PRIDE and UFC veteran Marcus Aurelio. The organization announced that fight, as well as "Lion" Takeshi Inoue vs. Kazuyuki Miyata and Hideo Tokoro vs. Joachim Hansen for the event.
Aoki's last fight came in July when he finished Tatsuya Kawajiri with a vicious ankle submission. That win was a rebound victory after falling to Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce back in April.
Aurelio went 2-4 in six appearances in the Octagon, but the 37 year old has never been finished in his MMA career. He was brought back to the UFC last summer for a fight with Evan Dunham, but he dropped a split decision in that fight. Since then he's posted back to back rear naked choke victories.
DREAM 16 airs live in the U.S. on HDNet on September 25 from the Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
Penick's Analysis: Aoki vs. Aurelio is actually a very interesting fight. Aurelio's never been finished, providing a definite challenge for Aoki to be the first to do so. Aurelio also has a number of very good wins to his credit, and although his record stands at 20-8, he has still performed well or at least competitively in all of the fights he's had. He's also won four of five fights, with the Dunham loss being the only notch in the loss column since 2008.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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