Daisuke Nakamura is a good fighter. He has pulled off some amazing submissions in Demolition, including a flying armbar and a crazy crucifix/armlock type thing. He tapped Shannon Ritch in one of Pride's BEST shows. Not exactly a great win, he's the only guy most people would recognize, I think...
Shinya Aoki is a newcomer. He's still green, but he'll be great someday.
Also, of Nakao's 17 wins, not a single one has gone the distance. Every win is by submission or KO/TKO.
Nakao does have some avian features with the long face and the hook nose.
He's an awesome and exciting fighter. It seems that the only way people can beat him is by taking top position and hanging on for their lives (pat... pat... pat... body... body... head).
Not that this makes any difference in his fighting abilities, but Nakao has gotta be the most ripped fighter that I have ever seen. Geezus, I would kill to have a physique like his (but I'd take his ability to triangle over that any day!)
Has Nakao just been fighting a lower level of competition lately, or has he really been holding up better than some of his contemporaries like Sato and Sakurai?
Yeah, Nakao has a really ripped, and yet natural-looking physique. He doesn't have gigantic veins bulging out of his arms, or an enlarged/square head, or bloated gut, or anything like that.
Nakao hasn't really fought top competiton lately, except Kikuchi, Sherk, and DeSouza (going 1-2 against them). He's fought a lot of good fighters; not a lot of top fighters.
I've been saying for a while that Nakao is like a grappling version of Rizzo. Sometimes he holds back waaaaaaay too much, and it creates a boring fight. But he has a ton of skills, and when he unleashes them he is incredible to watch.