Kyoji Horiguchi is coming back to the UFC.
The 34-year-old Japanese fighter decided to give up his RIZIN flyweight championship to fight in the UFC again in 2025. He announced this at RIZIN 50 on Sunday. Horiguchi trains with UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
The UFC hasn`t said yet when or who he will fight in his comeback.
Horiguchi said, “I`m going to the UFC. I`m going to be the first Japanese UFC champion.”
Horiguchi previously fought in the UFC from 2013 to 2016, and only lost to the champion at the time, Demetrious Johnson. He chose to leave the UFC after winning three fights in a row to join RIZIN. Now he`s returning after winning his last five fights.
In RIZIN, Horiguchi won 14 out of 15 fights, defeating fighters like Manel Kape, Ian McCall, and Yuki Motoya. He also got revenge for his only loss to Kai Asakura. He also held both the RIZIN and Bellator bantamweight titles at the same time while fighting in Japan, beating Darrion Caldwell twice.
RIZIN announced they will have a flyweight tournament this year to find a new champion for the 125-pound division.
