If
Kyoji
Horiguchi were to walk away from the sport tomorrow, he would
do so as
one of the most accomplished Japanese mixed martial artists of
all-time
.
The former
Bellator
MMA,
Shooto and
Rizin Fighting Federation champion boasts an impressive 31-5
record, having started his career as a teenager back in 2010. A
protégé of the late
Norifumi
“Kid” Yamamoto, Horiguchi now trains out of the star-studded
American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida. He last
appeared at Rizin 40 on New Year’s Eve, when he took a three-round
unanimous decision from
Hiromasa
Ougikubo and improved to 3-0 in their head-to-head series with
one another.
As Horiguchi plots his next move and awaits word on his first
assignment of 2023, a look at some of the numbers that have
accompanied him to this point:
32: Years of age for Horiguchi, who was born on Oct. 12, 1990 in
Takasaki, Japan—a little more than 70 miles northwest of Tokyo.
15: Horiguchi victories by knockout or technical knockout,
accounting for 48% of his career total (31). His list of victims
includes
Kai
Asakura,
Ian McCall,
Hideo
Tokoro and
Ben Nguyen.
Horiguchi holds four other victories by submission (13%) and 12
more by decision (39%).
9: Seconds needed for Horiguchi to punch out McCall at Rizin 10 on
May 6, 2018. Nearly five years later, it remains his fastest finish
to date.
2: Weight classes in which Horiguchi has competed during his
36-fight career. He has fought as a flyweight and as a
bantamweight.
64: Rounds completed by Horiguchi as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 14 different occasions and
carries a 12-2 record in those bouts.
13: Consecutive calendar years in which Horiguchi has fought at
least once. He went 3-0 in 2010, 3-0 in 2011, 3-1 in 2012, 3-0 in
2013, 2-0 in 2014, 2-1 in 2015, 2-0 in 2016, 5-0 in 2017, 3-0 in
2018, 2-1 in 2019, 1-0 in 2020, 0-1 in 2021 and 2-1 in 2022.
318: Days spent by Horiguchi as the undisputed Rizin Fighting
Federation bantamweight champion. He laid claim to the title with a
third-round guillotine choke submission of
Darrion
Caldwell at Rizin 14 on Dec. 31, 2018 and vacated it due to
injury on Nov. 14, 2019.
66: Significant strikes by which Horiguchi outlanded his last three
opponents prior to leaving the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. He connected on 205 such
strikes in wins over
Chico Camus,
Neil
Seery and
Ali
Bagautinov while absorbing only 139 in return.
5: Companies for which Horiguchi has plied his mixed martial arts
trade. He has gone 12-1 in the Rizin Fighting Federation, 9-1 in
Shooto, 7-1 in the UFC, 2-0 in Vale Tudo Japan and 1-2 in
Bellator.
.836: Cumulative winning percentage between the five men—Asakura,
Patrick
Mix,
Sergio
Pettis,
Demetrious
Johnson and
Masakatsu
Ueda—who have beaten Horiguchi. They sport a combined record of
108-20-3.