An under-the-radar trilogy bout will provide some depth and
intrigue when
Bellator
MMA and the
Rizin Fighting Federation join forces for
Rizin 40 on Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama,
Japan. There,
Kyoji
Horiguchi seeks a 3-0 advantage in his head-to-head series with
Hiromasa
Ougikubo in a three-round flyweight showcase.
American Top Team’s Horiguchi has already bested Ougikubo
twice, having submitted him with a rear-naked choke inside the
venerable
Shooto
organization on March 16, 2013 before outpointing him to a
unanimous decision at Rizin 11 on July 29, 2018.
Horiguchi has lost three of his past five bouts. He last competed
at Rizin 38, where he put
Yuto
Hokamura to sleep with an arm-triangle choke in the second
round of their Sept. 25 encounter. Horiguchi has not recorded
back-to-back victories since 2019. Ougikubo, meanwhile, has rattled
off five wins across his past six outings. He last appeared on
Sept. 25, when he wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous
decision against former
One
Championship titleholder
Soo Chul
Kim at Rizin 38. It was Ougikubo’s first setback in more than
two years.
As Horiguchi and Ougikubo make final preparations for their third
confrontation with one another, a look at some of the numbers that
have accompanied them to this point:
32: Years of age for Horiguchi, who was born on Oct. 12, 1990 in
Takasaki, Japan.
15: Horiguchi victories by knockout or technical knockout,
accounting for 50% of his career total (30). His list of victims
includes
Kai
Asakura,
Ian McCall,
Ben
Nguyen and
Shintaro
Ishiwatari (twice). Horiguchi owns four other victories by
submission (13%) and 11 more by decision (37%).
9: Seconds needed for Horiguchi to punch out McCall at Rizin 10 on
May 6, 2018. More than four years later, it remains his fastest
finish to date.
13: Consecutive calendar years in which Horiguchi has fought at
least once. In addition to his 1-1 mark in 2022, 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 and 0-1 in 2021.
.844: Cumulative winning percentage between the five men—Asakura,
Patrick
Mix,
Sergio
Pettis,
Demetrious
Johnson and
Masakatsu
Ueda—who have defeated Horiguchi. They boast a combined record
of 115-20-3.
35: Years of age for Ougikubo, who was born in Kuji, Japan, on
April 1, 1987.
6: Ougikubo wins by submission, accounting for 24% of his career
total (25). His methods of choice: five rear-naked chokes and one
guillotine choke. Ougikubo holds one other win by knockout or
technical knockout (4%)—he buried
Hiroyuki
Tanaka with punches at a Shooto event in 2008—and 18 more by
decision (72%).
75: Rounds completed by Ougikubo as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 22 different occasions and
carries an 18-2-2 record in those bouts.
3: Promotions in which Ougikubo has plied his MMA trade. He has
gone 15-3-2 in Shooto, 7-3 in the Rizin Fighting Federation and 3-0
in Vale Tudo Japan.
100: Combined victories between the five men—Kim, Asakura,
Horiguchi (twice),
Eduardo
Dantas and
Koetsu
Okazaki—who have beaten Ougikubo. They sport a cumulative .783
winning percentage at 100-27-2.