Rizin flyweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi has announced that he is vacating his title and leaving the promotion in order to return to the UFC.
“I’m going to the UFC,” Horiguchi announced at Rizin 50 today. “I’m going to become the first Japanese UFC champion.”
The 34-year-old Horiguchi originally fought for the UFC between 2013-2016 and was a very highly regarded fighter in the flyweight ranks, compiling a 7-1 run in the Octagon, with his only loss coming against the dominant champion at the time, Demetrious Johnson.
However, Horiguchi eventually decided to part ways with the promotion and sign with Rizin, where he found immediate success, winning their 2017 bantamweight grand-prix, and then becoming the inaugural champion of the division the following year.
Horiguchi also briefly held Bellator’s bantamweight title in 2019, and more recently during his current five-fight unbeaten run he’s won Rizin’s flyweight title and successfully defended it in his most recent fight in December of last year, taking his overall record since leaving the Octagon to 19-3 (+1nc).
While he’s starting to move beyond his prime years, Horiguchi is still one of the world’s leading flyweights and so his UFC return provides a major boost to the division and could set up a potential title showdown with current UFC kingpin Alexandre Pantoja in the future, although it’s a match-up with some added complications given that the two actually started trained together late last year.
As such, it is possible Horiguchi might make a push at bantamweight instead, but nothing is certain at this stage.
