Arnaud Lepont still calls Shinya Aoki his “idol.” But after Aoki ripped Lepont in a recent interview, the French MMA star is hoping to send one of his heroes to an early retirement.
“As soon as he talked [expletive] about me, then he’s just another guy on my list,” Lepont told The Post. “I won’t let anybody not show respect for what I’ve done.”
Lepont and Aoki will settle the score Saturday in the main event of ONE Fighting Championship: Rise of Kings at sold-out Singapore Indoor Stadium. The card can be seen in the United States online for $9.99 at livesport.tv at 8 a.m.
Aoki, one of the top lightweights in the world, told MMAWeekly.com last week that Lepont wanting a fight him with was “a mistake.”
“I don’t know very much about him and I don’t really care,” Aoki told the site. “He says he is a fan, but if that is the case then fighting me is a very stupid thing to do. Most of my fans want to take a photo with me, but he wants to fight me? I find that very strange.”
Aoki is one of the best submission grapplers ever in MMA, but said that knocking out Lepont “would also be fun for me.” Lepont, an accomplished Muay Thai kickboxer, says he’s “ready to knock [Aoki] out as soon as possible.”
“I’d like to see if he’ll really have the [guts] to stand with me,” Lepont said. “I don’t think so.”
Lepont isn’t exaggerating when he says “this is the biggest fight of my life.” The 32-year-old is 10-1, but has never fought anyone with the pedigree of Aoki. The fight will also be the main event of what ONE FC president Victor Cui has called the biggest event in his company’s year history.
The Frenchman, who trains in Malaysia, is hoping to stop his idol and send the 29-year-old former champion out of the sport.
“If I knock him out, he’ll look bad,” Lepont said. “If I knock Shinya Aoki out, I think he should think about retirement.”
Lepont says he was already motivated by the significance of this opportunity, but when Aoki started talking trash about him he amped things up in training even more.
“I’ve trained my [butt] off to earn this fight,” Lepont said. “I don’t think it’s a fluke. I don’t think it’s a gift from Victor Cui. He should not have talked [expletive] about me.”