Kyoji Horiguchi vacates Rizin belt and announces return to UFC

Kyoji Horiguchi has vacated the Rizin belt in the flyweight category and announced his return to the UFC organization. The Japanese fighter will try to win the title of champion of the best MMA league in the world.

Kyoji Horiguchi appeared in the ring at tonight’s Rizin 50 gala, with fans expecting the announcement of the next Rizin champion’s fight in the flyweight category. The Japanese fighter unexpectedly announced that he was vacating the belt and moving overseas to the UFC organization.

Kyoji Horiguchi is an extremely experienced, but still relatively young fighter. During his long career, the 34-year-old Japanese fighter reached for Rizin’s championship belts in the flyweight and cockfighting categories, as well as Bellator ‘s championship belt in the cockfighting division.

The American Top Team fighter currently boasts a series of five wins in a row. Mike Brown’ s charge has fought for the UFC belt in the past. Less than 10 years ago at UFC 186 in Montreal, he lost to Demetrious Johnson by submission in the last second of the five-round fight.

Kyoji left the UFC in late 2016 and early 2017, and his total record in the organization is 7 wins and 1 loss. The Japanese fighter should join the competition for top targets with a march, especially since many fighters from the top of the up to 57 kilogram category have already had the opportunity to fight for the title in recent years.

The problem here could be club ties, however, as Alexandre Pantoja, the current champion also trains at American Top Team. The Brazilian “Cannibal” has a string of seven wins in a row, including three defenses of the belt, however, he may move up to a division higher up, where the top spots are occupied by fighters with similar physical conditions such as Merab Dvalishvili, Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo.