Kyoji Horiguchi News

Josh Evanoff - March 20, 2025

According to a recent report from Ariel Helwani, RIZIN champion Kyoji Horiguchi is nearing a deal to return to the UFC. ‘The Typhoon’ hasn’t been in the RIZIN ring since his title defense against Nkazimulo Zulu in December. Back for the first time since his lopsided decision win over Sergio Pettis last summer, he handed ‘Zulu Boy’ a unanimous decision loss. The win moved Kyoji Horiguchi’s unbeaten streak to seven, and was also his first defense of flyweight gold. However, that will likely go down as his last appearance in the Japanese promotion.

Josh Evanoff - December 27, 2024

RIZIN flyweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi wants to prove that he’s the best in the world. ‘The Typhoon’ hasn’t been seen in the ring since a bantamweight clash with Sergio Pettis in June. In a rematch of their Bellator 272 classic which saw ‘The Phenom’ score a knockout win, Kyoji Horiguchi dominated. After 15 minutes of action, he moved his unbeaten streak to five by unanimous decision.

Josh Evanoff - April 19, 2024

Kyoji Horiguchi will get the chance to avenge a loss to Sergio Pettis later this summer in RIZIN. ‘The Typhoon’ is fresh off a rematch with Makoto Takahashi at RIZIN 45 in December. That fight was his second in a row with the Japanese fighter, previously fighting to a no-contest in July that ended in an eye poke. In the second bout, Kyoji Horiguchi wasted no time, securing a second-round submission victory.

Josh Evanoff - January 11, 2024

RIZIN flyweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi reportedly plans to return to the UFC. ‘The Typhoon’ is fresh off his return at RIZIN 45 in December. There, Kyoji Horiguchi fought Makamoto Takahashi, in a rematch of their July bout. Their first bout for the vacant Bellator flyweight title ended after just seconds, due to an eye poke. Due to the Scott Coker company being bought out by the PFL, they instead ran it back for RIZIN gold this time around.

Chris Taylor - December 3, 2021

Tonight’s Bellator 272 event was headlined by a highly anticipated title fight featuring Sergio Pettis taking on Kyoji Horiguchi. Pettis (21-5 MMA) was looking to earn his first career title defense when he took on former champion Horiguchi (29-3 MMA) this evening.

Chris Taylor - December 3, 2021

Sergio Pettis pulled off one of the craziest comebacks in recent memory when he knocked out Kyoji Horiguchi in tonight’s Bellator 272 main event. Pettis (21-5 MMA) was looking to earn his first career title defense when he took on former champion Horiguchi (29-3 MMA) this evening.

Drake Riggs - November 24, 2021

Kyoji Horiguchi is a man on a mission. The current RIZIN FF 135-pound bantamweight king recaptured the title he never officially lost on New Year’s Eve 2020 and hasn’t fought since. Now, Horiguchi has signed with Bellator in a rare deal that sees him remain the RIZIN champ and seeks the other title he relinquished when sidelined in all of 2020 recovering from an ACL tear.

Drake Riggs - October 20, 2021

RIZIN bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi is set to attempt to reclaim the title he never lost. Bellator announced on Wednesday that their newest Bellator 135-pound champion in Sergio Pettis has his next challenger. Pettis will defend against the RIZIN titlist in Horiguchi on Dec. 3 at Bellator 272 in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2020

On New Years Eve in Japan (Thursday morning in North America), RIZIN Fighting Federation wrapped up the year with the stacked RIZIN 26 event. The card was headlined by a bantamweight title fight between reigning champion Kai Asakura and former champion Kyoji Horiguchi. The bout was a rematch of a non-title fight that Asakura won by knockout. This time around, Horiguchi evened the score with a first-round TKO, reclaiming the title and reasserting himself as one of the best bantamweights on earth.

Tom Taylor - November 27, 2019

Weeks after he relinquished the Rizin bantamweight title, Kyoji Horiguchi has let go of the Bellator bantamweight belt as well. Bellator MMA announced this unfortunate news in a Wednesday afternoon press release.

Natasha Hooper - November 15, 2019

Kyoji Horiguchi plans to avenge his loss against Kai Asakura will have to be put on hold. The Rizin and Bellator champion Horiguchi (28-3) has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming Rizin 20 bout against Asakura (14-1) due to a damaged meniscus and torn ACL.

Cole Shelton - August 18, 2019

RIZIN FF and Bellator bantamweight champion, Kyoji Horiguchi returned to the cage in the main event of RIZIN 18. There, the champ was taking Kai Asakura in a non-title bout.

Drake Riggs - April 28, 2019

The first RIZIN Fighting Federation event of 2019 went down on April 21 with RIZIN 15. It was a great night of fights as per usual from the Japanese based MMA leader. In action, that night was none other than the RIZIN bantamweight king, Kyoji Horiguchi (27-2) who defeated Ben Nguyen via first-round TKO. The dominant 28-year old entered the ring for the first time since he won the title on New Year’s Eve 2018 at RIZIN 14 when he defeated the Bellator champion, Darrion “The Wolf” Caldwell (13-2) in a crazy comeback effort.

Drake Riggs - January 30, 2019

With each new year, Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation seems to continually step things up a notch with bigger and better shows. 2018 was no different. RIZIN capped this past year off with the fantastic RIZIN 14 New Year’s Eve show which was headlined by a surprising exhibition boxing match that featured all-time boxing great Floyd Mayweather vs prodigy kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2018

Bellator bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell traveled all the way to Japan on his quest for a second world title, as we was booked for a RIZIN 14 bantamweight title fight with Japanese star Kyoji Horiguchi. Early on this fight, it looked as though Caldwell might succeed on his transpacific mission, as he was able to take Horiguchi down and control him on the canvas.

Drake Riggs - November 28, 2018

The wait is now over as RIZIN Fighting Federation has finally released the full card for their big New Year’s Eve show this year, RIZIN 14 on December 31. With big things already expected after the announcement of the card’s headliner between boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather and superstar kickboxing prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa, it has only gotten better.

Drake Riggs - August 28, 2018

Despite having come up short in his most recent attempted title defense, there is no question that Demetrious Johnson is one of the all-time greats. Even in his rematch with Henry Cejudo at UFC 227, it wasn’t as if the mighty one was blown out of the water in his split decision loss.

Tom Taylor - August 24, 2018

Early on Friday morning, Rizin Fighting Federation announced the lineup for Rizin 13, which goes down on September 30 inside the hallowed Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo, Japan. To call the card stacked would be an understatement. In the main event, former UFC flyweight title challenger and current Rizin superstar Kyoji Horiguchi will meet striking ace Tenshin Nasukawa in an absolutely riveting kickboxing bout.