If Kyoji Horiguchi were to walk away from the sport tomorrow, he would do so as one of the most accomplished Japanese mixed martial artists of all-time .
The former Bellator MMA, Shooto and Rizin Fighting Federation champion boasts an impressive 31-5 record, having started his career as a teenager back in 2010. A protégé of the late Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Horiguchi now trains out of the star-studded American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida. He last appeared at Rizin 40 on New Year’s Eve, when he took a three-round unanimous decision from Hiromasa Ougikubo and improved to 3-0 in their head-to-head series with one another.
As Horiguchi plots his next move and awaits word on his first assignment of 2023, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied him to this point:
32: Years of age for Horiguchi, who was born on Oct. 12, 1990 in Takasaki, Japan—a little more than 70 miles northwest of Tokyo.
15: Horiguchi victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 48% of his career total (31). His list of victims includes Kai Asakura, Ian McCall, Hideo Tokoro and Ben Nguyen. Horiguchi holds four other victories by submission (13%) and 12 more by decision (39%).
9: Seconds needed for Horiguchi to punch out McCall at Rizin 10 on May 6, 2018. Nearly five years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
2: Weight classes in which Horiguchi has competed during his 36-fight career. He has fought as a flyweight and as a bantamweight.
64: Rounds completed by Horiguchi as a professional mixed martial artist. He has gone the distance on 14 different occasions and carries a 12-2 record in those bouts.
13: Consecutive calendar years in which Horiguchi has fought at least once. He went 3-0 in 2010, 3-0 in 2011, 3-1 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014, 2-1 in 2015, 2-0 in 2016, 5-0 in 2017, 3-0 in 2018, 2-1 in 2019, 1-0 in 2020, 0-1 in 2021 and 2-1 in 2022.
318: Days spent by Horiguchi as the undisputed Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight champion. He laid claim to the title with a third-round guillotine choke submission of Darrion Caldwell at Rizin 14 on Dec. 31, 2018 and vacated it due to injury on Nov. 14, 2019.
66: Significant strikes by which Horiguchi outlanded his last three opponents prior to leaving the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He connected on 205 such strikes in wins over Chico Camus, Neil Seery and Ali Bagautinov while absorbing only 139 in return.
5: Companies for which Horiguchi has plied his mixed martial arts trade. He has gone 12-1 in the Rizin Fighting Federation, 9-1 in Shooto, 7-1 in the UFC, 2-0 in Vale Tudo Japan and 1-2 in Bellator.
.836: Cumulative winning percentage between the five men—Asakura, Patrick Mix, Sergio Pettis, Demetrious Johnson and Masakatsu Ueda—who have beaten Horiguchi. They sport a combined record of 108-20-3.
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