↵WVR director, Sumio Inamura condemned Aoki’s flipping of the bird at the severely injured Hirota as an “erratic, unforgivable conduct” and fumed that there is not an ounce of sincerity or contrition in his apology. Inamura also demanded accountability from “those who are suspected to have incited Aoki to behave the way he did.”
The official statement from WVR notes that WVR acknowledges Aoki as the top Japanese lightweight and has no contention regarding how the fight unfolded from beginning to end. Nonetheless, it claims that Aoki’s post-fight behavior ruined the plum opportunity to elevate the status of mixed martial arts with broadcast on network TV during the prime TV slot of the year.
Sengoku Press Conference Notes
↵Shinya Aoki breaking Hirota’s arm and then giving him the ol’ middle finger has really taken on a life of its own. I do think that for a country which likes it’s MMA with a healthy dose of “respect” and “warrior spirit” Japan is going to turn on Aoki fairly hard after this. Or maybe he’ll simply be a bigger star ala Brock Lesnar. Either way, people are talking about him, so that’s something.
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