{"id":36703,"date":"2026-02-08T21:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Kyoji-Horiguchi-Focused-on-UFC-Flyweight-Title-After-Latest-Victory-200069"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:56:18","slug":"kyoji-horiguchi-focused-on-ufc-flyweight-title-after-latest-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/kyoji-horiguchi-focused-on-ufc-flyweight-title-after-latest-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyoji Horiguchi Focused on UFC Flyweight Title After Latest Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n
<\/center>\n<\/div>\n

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\nKyoji Horiguchi was in prime form against Amir Albazi. |
\nGetty\/UFC<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

\n

More than 10 years ago, Kyoji
\nHoriguchi<\/a> wasn\u2019t ready to become
\nUFC<\/a> champion.<\/p>\n

The Japanese standout squared off against pound-for-pound great
\nDemetrious
\nJohnson<\/a> at UFC 186, falling to \u201cMighty Mouse\u201d via armbar in the
\nfifth round of their April 2015 championship bout. Horiguchi would
\nwin three more UFC bouts before parting ways with the Las
\nVegas-based promotion in 2016. He enjoyed plenty of success in
\nRizin and Bellator before returning to the UFC late last year. On
\nSaturday, he earned his second consecutive victory in the Octagon,
\nas he cruised past Amir Albazi<\/a>
\nin the
\nUFC Fight Night 266<\/a> co-main event.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m better at everything,\u201d Horiguchi said of the difference
\nbetween now and then at Saturday\u2019s post-fight press conference.
\n\u201cFighting fear, scared, everything, I learn. That\u2019s why I\u2019m strong
\nright now.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 35 years old, Horiguchi appears to still be at the peak of his
\npowers. With that in mind, he has his sights set on adding UFC
\nhardware to a trophy case that already includes Rizin and Bellator
\nbelts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care,\u201d Horiguchi said. \u201cI want a belt. If the champion is
\n[Alexandre] Pantoja, yes Pantoja. If it\u2019s other guy, yes other guy.
\nThat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua
\nVan<\/a> claimed the flyweight strap when Pantoja suffered an arm
\ninjury early in their UFC 323 encounter this past December. Pantoja
\nhas been a training partner of Horiguchi\u2019s at American Top team,
\nand the Japanese standout would be more than willing to give the
\nBrazilian a shot at the title if it comes to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d Horiguchi said. \u201cHe defended it many times. I think
\nhe\u2019s a true champion. It was an accident. I think he\u2019s a true
\nchampion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Perfectionist<\/h2>\n

While Horiguchi was nearly flawless against Albazi on Satruday, he
\nstill saw plenty of room for improvement.<\/p>\n

“Not my best performance \u2013 I want to finish him,” Horiguchi
\nsaid. “Of course I want to get the belt soon. I will keep training,
\ngo back to Florida and I’m just focused on the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horiguchi seemed to be nursing a hand injury as he fulfilled his
\nmedia obligations, but he doesn\u2019t expect it to be a significant
\nhindrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure [when I\u2019ll fight next] because maybe my hand is a
\nlittle broke, but when I fix this, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Horiguchi
\nsaid. \u201cAnywhere, anytime, I can fight.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyoji Horiguchi was in prime form against Amir Albazi. | Getty\/UFC More than 10 years ago, Kyoji Horiguchi wasn\u2019t ready to become UFC champion. The Japanese standout squared off against pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson at UFC 186, falling to \u201cMighty Mouse\u201d via armbar in the fifth round of their April 2015 championship bout. Horiguchi would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}