Kyoji
Horiguchi has fashioned quite a career for himself, and he
still has work left to do.
The former
Bellator
MMA and
Rizin Fighting Federation champion will take on fellow
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran
Ray Borg in a
three-round
Bellator
295 flyweight showcase on Saturday at the Neil S. Blaisdell
Center in Honolulu. Horiguchi, 35, enters the cage on the heels of
back-to-back victories. However, he has not fought in the
Scott
Coker-fronted organization since dropped a five-round unanimous
decision to
Patrick Mix
at Bellator 279 a little less than a year ago.
As Horiguchi makes final preparations for his showdown with Borg at
125 pounds, a look at five of the many moments that have come to
define him:
1. Shooting Star
Horiguchi laid claim to the
Shooto
bantamweight title when he disposed of
Hiromasa
Ougikubo with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their
March 16, 2013 headliner at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The end came
1:35 into Round 2. Horiguchi cut off repeated takedown attempts
from a defending champion who was openly wary of his would-be
successor’s standup prowess. Ougikubo managed to scramble into full
mount at one point in the first round but did little with the
advantageous position. Horiguchi’s takedown defense held up again
in the second period and allowed him to put some hammerfist-laden
ground-and-pound on the Paraestra Matsudo export. He was the
matador to Ougikubo’s bull. Eventually, Horiguchi sidestepped a
takedown, wheeled to the back and threaded both hooks before
cinching the fight-ending choke. It was Ougikubo’s first setback in
nearly three years and brought instant validation to his
tormentor.
2. ‘Mouse’ Trap
The irresistible force and immovable object all wrapped into one at
125 pounds,
Demetrious
Johnson retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight
crown by submitting Horiguchi with a fifth-round armbar in the UFC
186 main event on April 25, 2015 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
“Mighty Mouse” executed the maneuver and elicited the tapout 4:59
into Round 5, putting himself in the record books with the latest
submission in UFC history. Horiguchi’s efforts were admirable but
unproductive. Johnson executed 14 takedowns and six guard passes
against him, all while outlanding him by better than a 2-to-1 clip
in the total strike and significant strike departments. It was a
blowout in every sense of the word and sent a humbled Horiguchi
back to the drawing board.
3. Taming a Beast
Horiguchi continued to cement himself as one of the sport’s premier
lighter-weight competitors when he captured the Bellator MMA
bantamweight title with a five-round unanimous decision over
Darrion
Caldwell in the Bellator 222 co-headliner on June 14, 2019 at
Madison Square Garden in New York. Scores were 48-47, 49-46 and
49-46, all for Horiguchi, who moved to 2-0 in his head-to-head
series with the former NCAA wrestling champion. Caldwell—who had
submitted to a third-round guillotine choke from the American Top
Team rep at a Rizin Fighting Federation event six months prior—was
effective early, as he exploited his height and reach advantages in
the standup exchanges and kept the Japanese superstar off-balance
with well-timed takedowns. However, his gas tank could not
withstand the workload. Horiguchi conceded takedowns but
neutralized the
Alliance MMA export from a seated position in a scene that
repeated itself over and over again, scoring with short punches as
the Rahway, New Jersey, native clung to his legs. Caldwell
scrambled on top in the fifth round but failed to consolidate his
efforts with ground-and-pound or positional advancements, choosing
instead to eat a few elbows to the side of the head before nearly
wandering into an inverted triangle choke that sealed his fate on
the scorecards.
4. A Serving of Revenge
A vengeful Horiguchi rebounded from a stunning 68-second knockout
loss to
Kai Asakura
and buried the Tri-Force Jiu-Jitsu Academy representative with
punches to reclaim the Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight crown
in the first round of their Rizin 26 headliner on Dec. 31, 2020 at
the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Asakura succumbed to
blows 2:48 into Round 1. Horiguchi focused on kicks to the lower
lead leg of his counterpart, routinely circled out of danger and
forced the champion to engage him in open space. After hobbling
Asakura with one particularly damaging leg kick, Horiguchi dodged a
flying knee, floored him with a right hand and pounced with punches
until referee
Minoru
Toyonaga saw fit to intervene. He later vacated the title to
return to the flyweight division.
5. Blindsided
Sergio
Pettis retained the undisputed Bellator MMA bantamweight
championship when he knocked out Horiguchi with a spinning backfist
in the fourth round of their Bellator 272 main event on Dec. 3,
2021 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The
Roufusport mainstay brought it to a shocking conclusion 3:24 into
Round 4. Horiguchi had command of all of his pitches and kept the
Milwaukee native off-balance with darting lateral movements. The
Japanese star battered Pettis’ lead leg with kicks, punctuated his
combinations with powerful overhand rights, mixed in a handful of
spinning back kicks to the body and incorporated strategic
takedowns in the first, second and third rounds. None of it
mattered. A little more than midway through Round 4, Pettis pushed
the
American Top Team rep toward the fence and uncorked a head kick
at close range. Horiguchi ducked out of danger, only to be ambushed
by the spinning backfist that followed. The impact turned out his
lights and sent him crashing to the canvas, the unwitting victim in
one of the most spectacular finishes of 2021.