10 MMA Moments Seconds Before Disaster
1. David Gardner Says Hello To The Japanese Fans
When David Garner took on Shinya Aoki at DREAM 7, he had the biggest opportunity of his MMA career up to that point. Aoki had been primed as a future star of Japanese MMA with his excellent grappling skills, having emerged just as the PRIDE promotion was bought out by the UFC.
The 19-3 Aoki represented a huge step up in competition for the American, but when the two met Gardner performed admirably for the first five minutes, managing to continually evade submission attempts despite Aoki having a rear mount for almost the entire opening exchange.
With the success possibly causing Gardner to develop a sense of hubris in his submission defence, the Team Quest standout decided that waving to the crowd and saying "Hello Japan" would be a good idea while Aoki still had back control.
Obviously it wasn't such a great idea, and Aoki would immediately capitalise on the mistake by securing a choke and ending the fight.