Kyoji Horiguchi made his return to the octagon after 9 years and secured a round three submission victory against Tagir Ulanbekov at UFC Qatar.
Horiguchi’s grappling exchanges and elite striking were too much for Ulanbekov to handle. In Round 3, Horiguchi’s hard work paid off, and he landed a nasty head kick and some punches, after which he jumped on the Russian fighter’s back and sunk in a rare naked choke, forcing Ulanbekov to tap.
Several notable figures in the MMA community reacted to this submission win. Merab Dvalishvili wrote:
“Great performance by @kyoji1012 welcome back ud83euddbeud83cuddefud83cuddf5”
Terrance McKinney posted:
“Kyoji statement made ud83dudc4fud83dudc4fud83dudc4f”
Henry Cejudo posted:
“Kyoji Horiguchi is the greatest threat to Alexandre Pantoja’s flyweight title reign #UFCQatar”
Bo Nickal wrote:
“Kyoji!