Kyoji Horiguchi returned from a year-long injury layoff on New Year’s Eve at Rizin 26 and looked to be in outstanding form. The former two-promotion champ killed two birds with one stone, avenging his 2018 loss to Kai Asakura while reclaiming his Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight title. Next up for the 30-year-old Japanese standout may be a trilogy fight with Asakura, or perhaps a shot at regaining his Bellator MMA belt.
While Rizin, the spiritual successor to Pride Fighting Championships and Dream, has provided plenty of the pageantry and pandemonium we’ve come to expect from top-level Japanese MMA, what it has not provided much of thus far is champions defending their titles.