Kyoji Horiguchi was never really given a fair shake of things in the UFC‘s flyweight division. Thrust into a title shot against one of the greatest fighters of all time after only five years of professional competition, coming off a win over Louis Gaudinot, the conditions of his failure were set up from the start.
Horiguchi was forced into the role of the mouse fed to the snake that is Demetrious Johnson as one of the many prospects churned into the flyweight title machine. After losing to Johnson, the perennial top flyweight was relegated to the Fightpass prelims in two of his final three fights with the UFC.