Fresh off a commanding decision win over Marcus Aurelio at Dream 16 on Sept. 25, Aoki’s participation in Deep’s 10th anniversary card was confirmed Thursday at a press conference at Deep Official Gym Impact in Tokyo.
For the standout lightweight, it’s a return to his roots. The “Tobikan Judan” started his MMA career in Deep, winning the promotion’s 2003 Future King tournament at 180 pounds. It will be his first action of any kind for Deep since June 2007, when he submitted Pedro Akira in 38 seconds at the inaugural installment of the promotion’s grappling event, Deep X.
Sithoar, 35, achieved elite status in both the boxing and muay Thai rings. Sithoar won the World Boxing Association 115-pound world title in 1996, in addition to having won the 115-pound title in Thailand’s Lumpini Stadium, the nation’s most pretigious muay Thai venue.
The uncle of Shooto 115-pound world champion Rambaa Somdet, Sithoar will make his MMA debut against Aoki. Training out of his own gym, Yokthai Gym in Sendai, Japan, the Thailand native was slated to face So Tazawa in Shooto in March before a knee injury forced him out of the fight.
Also added to the Deep event was a bantamweight bout between Hiroshi Nakamura and Tatsumitsu Wada.
Yuya
Shirai vs. Shigetoshi
Iwase
Shinya
Aoki vs. Yokthai Sithoar
Masakazu
Imanari vs. Daiki
Hata
Takafumi
Otsuka vs. Yoshiro
Maeda
Ryo
Chonan vs. Jung Hwan
Cha
Hiroshi
Nakamura vs. Tatsumitsu
Wada
Shoji
Maruyama vs. Tatsunao
Nagakura
Ryuta
Noji vs. Hiroshi Nagao
Hidetaka
Monma vs. Yoshihisa
Yamamoto
Isao
Terada vs. Yusaku
Nakamura