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"I am grateful for this offer. This is my first fight in Strikeforce and for my first fight to be a title fight, this is my honour… Gilbert Melendez is one of the best in the world but I ama t the top as well. My grappling makes all MMA fans happy. I will give it a 120 per cent performance and show you Melendez's tap. I think I am the main driving force of DREAM and they have three events between March and May. I would have thought my absence would be harmful to DREAM[’s audience/viewing figures]. But, I proved on New Year’s Eve that DREAM is Asia’s No,1 promotion (Aoki beat Sengoku lightweight champion Hirota). Should we be satisfied with being Asia’s number one? No! We have to prove that we are the world’s top promotion and only I can prove it, I am top of Japan. I will go to the USA and prove [DREAM] forever."
-Shinya Aoki talks to Japanese website SportsNavi.com (translated by Fighter's Only) about his first fight in the U.S. coming this April in Strikeforce.
Penick's Analysis: There's one major flaw in Aoki's logic here. He's fighting Gilbert Melendez, not B.J. Penn. He says he's going to come here to prove DREAM is the top promotion, but if he runs through Gilbert Melendez all that will prove is what people would argue anyway, that he's the best lightweight not in the UFC. He'll be proven better than Strikeforce's lightweights, but that says nothing compared to some of the guys at the top of the UFC's 155 lb. division. He simply can't lay claim to DREAM being the best promotion in the world by beating Melendez, but he'll get to make his name to the U.S. audience on April 17th when he fights on network television.
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