Aoki Quits Twitter

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When it comes to trash talk and taunting, Shinya Aoki can dish it out. But it appears the Dream lightweight champion can no longer take the barrage of online ridicule over his most recent loss.

On Thursday, Aoki shut down his personal account on social networking site Twitter, @waoki, following an onslaught of insults and mockery from fans of Yuichiro Nagashima. Aoki was brutally knocked out by the K-1 Max kickboxer in their mixed rules bout at K-1 Dynamite: The Power of Courage 2010 on Dec. 31 in Saitama, Japan.

The rules of Aoki’s match with Nagashima called for one three-minute kickboxing round, followed by a five-minute mixed martial arts round. Predictably, grappling specialist Aoki was on the defensive for much of the first period. The “Tobikan Judan” clinched, ducked, ran, and even dropkicked to avoid Nagashima’s strikes. At the start of the second stanza, Aoki rushed across the ring and shot for a takedown, only to be crushed by a jumping knee from Nagashima which knocked Aoki out just four seconds into the round.

A cosplayer who almost always appears in public dressed as a female anime character, Nagashima possesses a rabid online fan base comprised of many other cosplay and anime enthusiasts. Those fans jumped on the opportunity to mock Aoki continually after the New Year’s Eve loss, on both Twitter and message boards.

“I think I’m done with Twitter,” Aoki wrote plainly before deleting the account, adding that he would continue to communicate with fans through Japanese social networking service Mixi.