Shinya Aoki returns to RIZIN a decade on to close the chapter DREAM never finished

Shinya Aoki makes his long-awaited return to RIZIN at Super RIZIN 5 in Osaka on Thursday, co-headlining the card against Japanese star Mikuru Asakura — ten years after he opened the promotion’s very first event by submitting Kazushi Sakuraba in six minutes.

At 43, Aoki frames the fight as something deeper than a late-career payday. For him, it is about finishing the story that DREAM, the promotion that briefly bridged the gap between PRIDE’s collapse and RIZIN’s creation, left unresolved when it quietly folded after 24 events between 2008 and 2012.

“There was PRIDE, and then PRIDE was bought out by the UFC,” Aoki said through an interpreter. “And then DREAM came along, but DREAM kind of faded out without a full closure. It just kind of ended, and everybody was kept in limbo. The fans were kept in limbo. And for me, the main reason for 2026 is to fight and to make a full closure of what DREAM was supposed to do. So that is my No. 1 priority in my return.”

DREAM was founded by former PRIDE executives and featured a roster that included Gegard Mousasi, Eddie Alvarez, Ronaldo Souza, Alistair Overeem, Jason Miller, and Sakuraba. When it dissolved, ex-PRIDE chief Nobuyuki Sakakibara went on to establish RIZIN.

After his sole RIZIN appearance in 2015, Aoki signed with ONE Championship, where he became lightweight champion. His final three fights under that banner took place in Japan — a submission win over John Lineker, another over Eduard Folayang, and a loss to Hiroyuki Tetsuka — but Aoki draws a firm distinction between competing in Japan under an international brand and fighting within the fabric of Japanese combat sports itself.

“ONE really doesn’t have the greatest presence over here in Japan,” he said. “Japanese MMA has the rich history of coming from the UWF days. There’s a rich history that created what Japanese MMA is today.”

Aoki admitted he was uncertain how fans would receive him after so long away, and was genuinely caught off guard by the warmth of the response.

“I kind of felt that I would never fight in Japan again,” he said. “A month and a half in and just going through this process, I was actually very surprised that the fans accepted my return. I’m very grateful that I was given this opportunity to fight on such a big prestigious event. Right now, I’m nothing but grateful.”

He also acknowledged the generational gap in the fanbase, wondering whether younger audiences even knew who he was — a concern that appears to have been answered by the reception he has already received ahead of Super RIZIN 5.