Kyoji Horiguchi just captured the bantamweight belt from Darrion Caldwell on the Bellator 222 main card.
Bellator 222 is underway and the promotion has a new bantamweight champion. His name is Kyoji Horiguchi, and he is also RIZIN FF’s champ. Horiguchi walked away with a unanimous decision in his high stakes rematch with Darrion Caldwell.
Caldwell came out and planted Horiguchi on his back up against the fence. Horiguchi struggled to get up due to the extreme control of the defending champ. A couple of hard elbows scored from the top. The second round saw more of the same from Caldwell. He controlled from the top with Horiguchi having few answers for getting up. The third round saw Horiguchi take top position off of a botched takedown. He was able to hold down his opponent, and when Caldwell did return to his feet, Horiguchi took him right back down. With about a minute remaining in the round, Caldwell got up and landed some quality strikes before taking top position.
In the fourth frame, Horiguchi jumped an early takedown that resulted in Caldwell eating up some clock from top position. The referee took the bout back to its feet, and it was Horiguchi who scored the last second takedown. Caldwell found top position early in the final round. He was able to stall out Horiguchi against the cage and maintain the position, but he wasn’t landing a ton of strikes. It was Horiguchi who was landing the elbows and short shots as he was being controlled.
Kyoji Horiguchi def. Darrion Caldwell by unanimous decision (49-46 x2, 48-47): Bantamweight Title
This third round is !
The belt is on the line and neither of these two men are going down without a fight!#Bellator222 pic.twitter.com/gTFEwjPZxt
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) June 15, 2019
Wasn’t easy, but @TheWolfMMA scores that takedown in round two.
Watch the #Bellator222 main card with @DAZN_USA in the and @SkySports in the . pic.twitter.com/9MYvYYN0i8
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) June 15, 2019
Prelims:
- Brandon Polcare def. Brandon Medina by submission at 4:33 of round 3: Flyweight
- Kastriot Xhema def. Whitney Jean Francois by TKO at 3:17 of round 2: 165 pounds
- John Beneduce def. Kenny Rivera by unanimous decision: Featherweight
- Taylor Turner def. Heather Hardy by TKO at 3:53 of round 1: 128 pounds
- Adam Borics def. Aaron Pico by TKO at 3:55 of round 2: Featherweight
- Valerie Loureda def. Larkyn Dasch by unanimous decision: (W) Flyweight
- Lindsay VanZandt def. Rena Kubota by submission at 4:04 of round 1: 112 pounds
- Haim Gozali def. Gustavo Wurlitzer by submission at 4:02 of round 1: 175 pounds
- Mike Kimbel def. Sebastian Ruiz by split decision: Bantamweight
- Robson Gracie Jr. def. Oscar Vera by submission at 3:15 of round 1: Welterweight
- Marcus Surin def. Nekruz Mirkhojaev by split decision: Lightweight
- Phil Hawes def. Michael Wilcox by TKO at 5:00 of round 1: Lightweight