Nine years after he left, Kyoji Horiguchi made a triumphant return to the UFC on Saturday night with a dominant submission win over Tagir Ulanbekov and then called out current flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, who also happens to be his friend and training partner.
Now Pantoja has had a chance to respond, and it seems he not only welcomes the challenge, but also has nothing but good things to say about the former Bellator and Rizin champion.
“I’m so happy for Kyoji,” Pantoja told MMA Junkie. “Tagir is a very good fighter and Kyoji made a clinic. He looked perfect. This made me very happy because Kyoji is one of my hard training partners in the gym. Me and my family are very grateful to have Kyoji in my life. He brought my level up. I know 100 percent that because I have Kyoji as my teammate, is why I conquered this belt in UFC. I know 100 percent about that. Kyoji was the RIZIN champ, the Bellator champ and he just missed the UFC. It’s something he wants. I talked with him about that. I think it’s very special if he can do that. He would be the only guy to achieve these belts in RIZIN, Bellator and UFC, the No. 1.
“I feel very honored, very grateful and it’s going to be very special for me if I can win against Joshua Van and defend against Kyoji. It’s going to be a present for me. It represents a lot to fight with someone very important in my life. But I don’t want to think about that right now because I have Joshua Van, a very good fighter. But I know a fight with Kyoji is going to be very hard for me to put in my mind, to hurt my friend. If this happens with all the process about camps and everything: We can feel better with that.
“I feel so Kyoji is happy to the UFC to make a performance like he did. I’m very glad he made this callout. Maybe the only guy I can make trash talk with is Kyoji Horiguchi.”
Horiguchi is now ranked No.8 in the 125lb division, so it remains to be seen whether he will have to fight again first to earn a title shot, or if his performance and impressive resume will enable him to be fast-tracked to a shot at the belt.
However, as Pantoja says, first things first he has to get past his next title challenger in Joshua Van, who has impressed during his 8-1 run in the Octagon so far, which has taken his overall career record to 15-2.
