Kyoji Horiguchi was the first man to win titles in two major MMA promotions simultaneously, holding the bantamweight belt in Bellator and RIZIN, but a lot has changed since.
A former flyweight contender in the UFC, Horiguchi now holds the 125-pound title in RIZIN and plans on showing dominance in Asia to become the world’s best flyweight before he considers moving weight classes again.
Unbeaten in nearly 10 years as a flyweight, he returns to the ring on Dec. 31 to face former EFC two-division champion Nkazimulo Zulu at RIZIN Decade in Saitama, Japan.
“I believe that flyweight is my weight class, and I want to focus on that,” Horiguchi told MMA Fighting through a translator. “My goal is to become the best in the world at flyweight. I’ve kind of shifted towards flyweight and focusing on there instead of going back and forth between two divisions.
“And as for bantamweight, once I achieve my goal at flyweight, then I can probably think of moving up. But right now, I’m just focused on becoming the best at flyweight.”
Zulu claimed the EFC bantamweight title in 2023 and returned to flyweight to defend his title this past March before leaving the African promotion to join RIZIN. In his debut fight in Japan, Zulu stopped Jo Arai in the opening round.
“In this industry, if you’re tough and if you have the skills, I think anybody deserves the title shot,” Horiguchi said. “And for me, as long as it’s under the flyweight division, I’m always ready to take on anybody.”
“As far as my opponent himself, he’s very athletic, and he’s very explosive, and I think he’s a good fighter,” he added. “My plan is to face him wherever the fight takes me, either on the striking or on the ground. I’m going to fight in MMA, and that’s a plan.”
Horiguchi revealed that Zulu was not his original opponent, though, but was given the opportunity after Alibek Gadzhammatov was no longer available.
“I think RIZIN is in the process of gathering decent flyweight fighters from across the globe, and I think they’re working on it,” Horiguchi said. “Before this fight with Zulu was confirmed, they offered me Gadzhammatov, who just fought in November. I think he’s a really good fighter. He was a tough fighter, and I said OK to him. My plan was to fight him, but apparently, something happened, maybe an injury or whatnot, and he wasn’t able to fight. But I already accepted the fight against him. He’s a good prospect, a good fighter.”
The Japanese star sees “other fighters that look pretty decent” in the RIZIN roster at flyweight but still lack “exposure” to justify a championship clash. Also, with former Brave CF champion Jose Torres allowed to compete at RIZIN Decade against Makoto Shinryu, a door could be open for a future clash with Brave’s Muhammad Mokaev, who just returned to the Bahrain-based company after a 7-0 run in the UFC.
“That sounds nice,” Horiguchi said. “There’s a lot that I can’t really talk, but yeah, if it happens, it happens.”
