Kyoji Horiguchi News

Drake Riggs - September 9, 2021

Kyoji Horiguchi is taking new steps forward in his storied career. It was revealed Thursday to BJPenn.com that the current RIZIN bantamweight champion has joined the Bellator roster. RIZIN, Bellator President Scott Coker, and Horiguchi himself announced the news via social media.

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.

Chris Taylor - June 14, 2019

A highly anticipated rematch between Darrion Caldwell and Kyoji Horiguchi took place at tonight’s Bellator 222 event in New York City. Horiguchi (27-2 MMA) submitted Caldwell (12-2 MMA) in the third round of their New Years Eve bout in Japan. The victory crowned Horiguchi the first Rizin FF super bantamweight champion.

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 - October 15, 2018

“Is this really happening?” is just one of the many quotes or questions that may be asked when witnessing one of those obviously special sports moments. One of the more fun parts about being in the combat sports world is that there are separate sports that are similar enough for athletes to try their hands in the other aspects and varieties that exist outside of the one that they’re accustomed to.

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.

Drake Riggs - July 29, 2018

In a night that had already seen some great action produced by UFC on Fox 30 in Calgary, MMA continued in Japan and only further stepped on the gas. The RIZIN Fighting Federation held their 11th numbered card just three hours or so after the conclusion of Dustin Poirier’s epic victory over Eddie Alvarez in their rematch. Right from the get-go, it was almost like the fighters were trying to top the UFC’s action. And they arguably did just that.

Jason Kindschy - May 9, 2018

BJPENN.COM Radio is back in action, Penn Nation! We kick things off with UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw. Last time the champ joined us, the super-fight against “Mighty Mouse” was all but finalized. Since then, the matchup has been shelved and TJ now faces former champion and rival Cody Garbrandt in a rematch at UFC 227 on August 4th. We’ll get TJ’s perspective on what went wrong with negotiations to fight Demetrious and if he feels that fight will eventually materialize. We’ll also preview the second bout with Cody, get TJ’s pick for the Lomachenko vs Linares fight this weekend, and much more.

Drake Riggs - May 9, 2018

It’s hard to argue that there is a fighter that has been more impressive than Kyoji Horiguchi in their post-UFC career. Since losing for only the second time in his career to UFC flyweight king, Demetrious Johnson, Horiguchi has rattled off nine straight victories with five finishes in a row(4 KO/TKO, 1 submission). More impressively, those recent five have been at bantamweight rather than his UFC divisional home of 125 pounds. And now it looks like Horiguchi plans on impressing in even more ways as BJPenn.com’s own Jason Kindschy is reporting that Rizin is planning for Horiguchi to enter their kickboxing Grand Prix with the hopes of him and Tensin Nasukawa facing off.

Tom Taylor - May 7, 2018

Over the weekend, Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation promoted one of its best events to date. This action-packed event featured a number of UFC veterans, most notably former flyweight title contenders Kyoji Horiguchi and Ian McCall, who collided in the main event. Though many fans expected this to be a competitive contest, it instead turned out to be a blitzkrieg win for the surging Japanese talent Horiguchi. The Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto protege and current American Top Team staple put his foe down with a punch mere seconds in the bout, forcing the referee to wave the action off at the 9-second mark (see it here).

Chris Taylor - May 6, 2018

VIDEO | Kyoji Horiguchi KO’s Ian McCall in just nine seconds Former UFC flyweight title challengers Kyoji Horiguchi (26-2 MMA) and Ian McCall (13-7-1 MMA) squared off last night in a bantamweight bout which headlined RIZIN FF 10.

Jason Kindschy - March 28, 2018

Another STACKED episode of BJPENN.COM Radio has arrived, Penn Nation! We kick things off with former UFC lightweight champion and current Bellator MMA star, Benson Henderson. Following the announcement that James Gallagher would not be competing at Bellator 196 in Budapest next weekend, Benson answered the call to save the card and now faces another MMA veteran in Roger Heurta. We’ll preview the fight in the usual “Smooth” fashion, discuss what he’d like to accomplish in 2018, and we’ll hear Ben’s interesting take on how to fix judging in MMA.

Justin Golightly - February 28, 2018

Right before Summer heats up, the premier Japanese fighting organization will put on their first fiery card of 2018 on May 6th. Perched atop of the card will be two former UFC fighters going at it in what may be the highest level of MMA to take place within the RIZIN ring. Newly crowned RIZIN bantamweight grand prix champion Kyoji Horiguchi will take on former UFC flyweight title challenger Ian McCall. Respectful Horiguchi is eager to test his skills. “This will be my first fight in Fukuoka against a top fighter Ian McCall. I would like to put on a good performance to show the greatness of fighting. I would like to take on challenges this year, and would like start this year 2018 by winning against Ian McCall in a good way. Manel Kape versus Ian McCall was an accident, I don’t take anything away from Ian because of that fight.”