Another notable fight that took place at Yarenokka 2007 show was Shinya Aoki vs Bu-Kyung Jung.  

Shinya Aoki is an impressive and experienced lightweight submission specialist, with both Judo and BJJ backgrounds, from Japan who is known for his aggressive ground game, especially his strong rubber guard.  Aoki is generally regarded as a top lightweight fighter and some of his highlights include pulling of a standing judo armlock and being one of the very few people pulling off a gogo-plata via rubber guard, while submitting a former Shooto champion and top Pride FC fighter Joachim Hansen which is even more impressive. Aoki has been on a eight fight winning streak before this fight with Jung.

Bu-Kyung Jung, a very experienced Judo fighter from Korea with a lot of international success - 2004 Judo World Cup Gold Medalist, was making his MMA debut against Aoki. Jung joined Yoon Dong Sik's MMA camp to train for Aoki.  Yoon is another tough Korean Judo fighter who was also thrown to right to the top level wolves in Pride FC facing Sakuraba for his debut and following that up with decision losses to current UFC LightHeavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson", Makoto Takimoto and Murillo Bustamante.  No doubt Yoon gained a tonn of experience from his first 4 losses and has applied that experience to since mount a 3 fight win streak.  With what little time Jung had to prepare, I'm sure Yoon prepared him as much as he could for the MMA game.

Now, I know international level Judo fighter are elite athletes and have a wealth of competition experience, but even with those attributes and experience many athletes, especially if matched up with top level competition, often do not do well in their MMA debuts. Being in front of thousands of people, the increased pressure to perform for a large audience, the adrenaline of being as close to a "real fight" as you can get, a chance to get knocked out or even simply getting hit in the face - all add up and hinder newcomer's performance. So that's what I pretty much expected to happen in this fight.

I was really surprised to see Jung, a judoka, pull a butterfly guard, quickly work to a tight armbar on a submission specialist himself. In fact almost I questioned his judo background at first, but who knows, may be in Korea newaza, judo's name for ground game, is more developed than other places. Aoki was just as surprised as the audience was that he was the one having to get out of a tight armbar from the guard in the opening minute of the fight. But being the submission expert Aoki calmly worked his way out of the armbar by lifting Jung up, slowly slipping out his arm out to safety and immediately transitioning to a series of leglock attempts. Jung fought them off for a while until Aoki transitioned into Jung's guard only to get caught in another armbar which he eventually escaped. From there on Aoki took over the fight with more takedowns, ground and pound and some more leglock attempts. At the end of the fight Aoki had Jung mounted and punching him from the top where Jung just covered till the end of the fight. Checkout JudoMMA.com's more detailed account of the fight

This is one of those times when the loser of the fight walks away with a loss, but wins the respect of the fans and promoters. It even over shadows the winner of the fight. Jung was smaller and inexperienced and gave a top fighter a good fight and had him in trouble several times. While a win over Aoki would have been nice for Jung, his MMA debut was very impressive and will leave many fans wanting to see him gain more MMA experience and give some more exciting submission displays. I hope Jung sticks to MMA and one of the Japanese promotions will pick him up for more fights. Also being that at 145lb he would be closer to his natural weight, may be WEC will add him to their roster of the exciting 145lb weight class.

At the same time I have to give credit to Aoki, who calmly got out of tough spots and beat a great Judo fighter, extented his win streak to 9 fights and showed why he is one of the top fighters at that weight. Aoki hasn't fought since the final Pride FC event, where does he go now? I hope UFC signs him and throws him into the 155lb weight class mix. He would be fun to watch against many UFC's 155'ers.

Watch out for Bu-Kyung Jung in the near future as he is joins the ranks of elite Judo fighters that are successfully transitioning into MMA