Their first meeting resulted in one of the more arresting submissions in Pride history, as Shinya Aoki used his octopus-like appendages to secure a rare gogoplata on Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen in the first round at the Shockwave event in '06.  Although Hansen was defeated by Eddie Alvarez in the quarters of DREAM's lightweight tournament, which was easily one of the most competitive and mind-blowing fights of '08, Alvarez was forced to pull out of the finals due to an eye injury, and Hansen was selected as his replacement.  He exceeded expectations and possibly exposed a formula for succes against the cyclical threat of Aoki's submissions by hammering down thunderous punches from the top position, taking the win by TKO and the DREAM LW belt home. After Hansen's unexplained absence for over a year, DREAM has announced that the trilogy will take place in Japan's Yokohama Arena on October 6, as reported by mmamania.com.  Hansen has not seen action since his last fight with Aoki in May of 2008.  "Hellboy" armbarred Kultar Gill in between his loss to Alvarez and win over Aoki, so he will look to avoid the ring rust and maintain top form when returning to face fellow Shooto offspring Shinya Aoki. Before Hansen bullied Aoki with fierce ground-n-pound to win their second fight, Aoki had only experiened a loss shockingly similar to the popular Pete Sell/Scott Smith KO (UFC) at the hands of Jutaro Nakao, and then dropped a close decision to Hayato Sakurai in Shooto.  Being 5-2 after the Sakurai loss (2005), Aoki's clever takedowns and elite submission skills garnered him 12 wins a row before Hansen surprisingly dismantled him in the lightweight gran prix finale.

< Prev		Next >