Kyoji Horiguchi has done just about everything imaginable in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career … except hold Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) gold.
As one of Japan’s all-time greatest fighters, if not the greatest, Horiguchi made history at RIZIN 45 last month (Dec. 31, 2023). The former RIZIN and Bellator Bantamweight titleholder had his Flyweight title rematch against Makoto “Shinryu” Takahashi in the main event, where he won via a second round rear-naked choke (watch highlights). Adding the Flyweight title to Horiguchi’s resume makes him the first fighter in promotional history to have held belts in multiple weight classes.
No one else has fought and won as often as the 33-year-old American Top Team (ATT) product inside the RIZIN ring (13 wins, 14 fights), leaving his fighting future in question after his signing with Bellator in late 2021. However, Bellator was absorbed by Professional Fighters League (PFL) this past November 2023, officially bringing Horiguchi over to the roster. Ultimately, the newly-minted RIZIN Flyweight champion recently expressed that he doesn’t quite have an interest in seeing what the new era of PFL has in store for him. Instead, he’d rather go back to a familiar past stomping ground.
“I don’t have anyone I want to fight, I really want to win the [UFC] belt, that’s all I’m thinking about,” Horiguchi said at a recent signing for his new book, Easy Fight (h/t Yahoo! Japan). “I think I can win [the UFC title], but it’s against people, and the opponent will study it, and the opponent’s technique will change from here, so there will be difficulties, but if there are difficulties, I will evolve even more. I think I can get it.”
Before he became arguably the biggest star in RIZIN’s history, Horiguchi ran through the budding UFC Flyweight division from October 2013 to November 2016. In that span, he went 7-1 (32-5, 1 no contest overall) with his only loss coming in his UFC title opportunity opposite Demetrious Johnson at UFC 186 in April 2015.
Horiguchi is well off financially outside of MMA at this stage and realistically could ride off into the sunset if he wanted to. Now, the talented and versatile champion is thinking about more than just himself as he continues his journey.
“Life isn’t all about money, but more than that, I have a strong desire to make the people around me happy, and I have a strong desire to give back to the people who have helped me the most since I came to the United States,” Horiguchi said. “So what they want becomes what they want.
“To put it simply, my joy is over in an instant, but when the people around me are happy, I can be happy for a long time, so it’s a matter of short-term or long-term,” he concluded. “At the end of the day, the more smiles you have, the better.”