Aoki will rightly be remembered, criticized or praised for this event, but the passage of time does offer us some additional perspective and therefore context. Hirota was a fool for not tapping, and he changed the trajectory of his career substantially due to this choice. He was out for over 20 months in total. Pre-fight, he was the Sengoku champion and his cross promotional bout against Dream champion Aoki was hotly anticipated, with a riotous crowd on the night (by Japanese standards). There was of course the standard MMA war of words pre fight, which Aoki always takes to heart because he is a true psychopath. Additionally, as has been mentioned already, Hirota had defeated Aoki’s best friend and training partner. Well, defeated is kind. He actually beat the shit out Of Kitaoka and took his Sengoku belt. Easily shucking off Kitaoka’s sub attempts gave him confidence to claim he was not scared of Aoki’s equally weak submission game. In their fight, Hirota came to immediately regret this decision. His break was so severe that his surgery was performed by the same Doctor that repaired Jerome Lebannners forearm after he famously shattered it against Ernesto Hoost (the ref ignored the break and allowed the fight to continue until reaching the knockdown limit) however, attempted returns to light training were quickly aborted due to the high potential for further aggravation and damage. Not to be discouraged, Hirota decided to leave his longtime Gym, Gutsman Dojo with another Sengoku standout to form Cave……which then resulted in him injuring his repaired arm and further delaying his return to MMA. Sengoku never stripped him, but he ended up vacating the belt due to his sustained absence from the promotion. When he WAS finally ready to return, Sengoku had folded….and Aoki had rattled off 6 wins across the largest promotions outside of the UFC in strikeforce, bellator and Dream. Hirota, a respected champion before his injury, was left to feed on opponents in DEEP. Obviously, this was not the end for Hirota, and he made his short run in the UFC….but had he tapped that night against Aoki, his career would look dramatically different from today
