Kyoji Horiguchi News

Tom Taylor - February 14, 2018

After blasting through the 2017 Rizin bantamweight Grand Prix to capture bantamweight gold, former UFC flyweight title challenger Kyoji Horiguchi now has another momentous challenge to look forward to: a battle with fellow UFC veteran Ian McCall. The pair will collide in Fukuoka, Japan on May 6. McCall announced this awesome booking on his official Instagram account.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2017

While UFC 219 dominated the MMA spotlight on Saturday night, it was not the only major event going down. Across the Pacific, Rizin Fighting Federation hosted its stacked, year-end card, which was highlighted by the finals of its action-packed bantamweight Grand Prix. The quarterfinals of this Grand Prix went down two nights ago, when Manel Kape defeated UFC veteran Ian McCall with a bizarre, ring-rope induced stoppage, Takafumi Otsuka tapped formerly undefeated prospect Khalid Taha, Shintaro Ishiwatari brutally KO’d Kevin Petshi, and UFC veteran Kyoji Horiguchi snuffed Gabriel Oliveira. 

Tom Taylor - February 20, 2017

Over the last few weeks, the UFC has generated some significant controversy by releasing a handful of top-flight fighters from their roster. Some of the more noteworthy of these fighters are ranked light heavyweights Ryan Bader, Misha Cirkunov and Nikita Krylov and streaking welterweight star Lorenz Larkin. Perhaps the most talented and promising fighter of the bunch, however, was Kyoji Horiguchi, who at just 26 years old, had already fought for the UFC flyweight title, and amassed an overall record of 18-2. While the UFC’s willingness to let the fan favorite Kid Yamamoto protégé go is quite frankly baffling, the good news is that the popular Japanese star has already found himself a new home. As many expected, he’ll be returning to his homeland to compete in the ring of surging Japanese promotion Rizin Fighting Federation.

Tom Taylor - February 19, 2017

Over the last few weeks, the UFC has generated some controversy by removing a number of high profile fighters from its roster. The most high-profile fighters to part ways with the organization have been light heavyweight talents Ryan Bader and Misha Cirkunov, and welterweight star Lorenz Larkin. Other names to be scratched off the UFC roster include Valerie Letourneau, Ali Bagautinov, Rick Story, Takeya Mizugaki and Seohee Ham. Over the weekend, this unfortunate trend continued, as two more ranked fighters became free agents.