A flyweight fight between Kyoji Horiguchi and Amir Albazi will serve as the co-main event at UFC Fight Night 266 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on February 7th.
Nine years after leaving the UFC to sign for Rizin, the 35-year-old Horiguchi returned to the Octagon in some style last month with an impressive performance against Tagir Ulanbekov that was sealed by a third round submission victory.
Horiguchi had been a major player in the UFC’s flyweight division during his first stint in the promotion between 2013 and 2016, going 7-1, with his only loss being to long-time 125lb champ Demetrious Johnson.
And Horiguchi would go on to enjoy a successful run after leaving the promotion, winning Rizin’s bantamweight grand-prix in 2017 and then also going on to win both their flyweight and bantamweight titles, in addition to also claiming the Bellator 135lb strap too.
Now Horiguchi is back in the UFC and ranked No.8 as he looks to fight his way back to a title shot in the Octagon.
Next up he’ll be fighting the 32-year-old Albazi, whose own title hopes suffered a setback last time out when Brandon Moreno beat him by unanimous decision.
That ended a five-fight winning streak for Albazi in the UFC since joining in 2020, culminating in a split-decision win over Kai Kara-France that had left him close to the title picture, though he’s now slipped to the no.5 spot.
Horiguchi vs. Albazi will serve as the lead-in to a main event bantamweight fight between Mario Bautista and Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 266, which will be the first ‘Fight Night’ show of the Paramout+ era next year.
