WATCH: MMA Fighter Gets Choked Out After Waving To Crowd Shinya Aoki chokes out David Gardner at DREAM 7 Photo: dreamofficial.com KEY POINTS David Gardner became a meme in the MMA community after his loss to Shinya Aoki in 2009 Gardner waved to the crowd in the middle of the fight, leading to his submission defeat Since then, Gardner came to be known as the "Hello Japan" guy. In mixed martial arts (MMA), the margin of error is so small that one brief mistake could mean the difference between winning and losing. A split-second could get a cage competitor knocked out, or a brief moment in a bad position will likely get someone submitted.