Pros react as Kyoji Horiguchi secures dominant submission victory at UFC Qatar
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 🦾🇯🇵”
Terrance McKinney posted:
“Kyoji statement made 👏👏👏”
Henry Cejudo posted:
“Kyoji Horiguchi is the greatest threat to Alexandre Pantoja’s flyweight title reign #UFCQatar”
Bo Nickal wrote:
“Kyoji!!!! 🇯🇵”
Horiguchi’s sole UFC loss was against Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight gold. The Japanese fighter previously signed with RIZIN in 2017, followed by Bellator MMA in 2021.
In 2025, ‘The Typhoon’ announced his decision to vacate his RIZIN flyweight world championship to make a UFC return.
Kyoji Horiguchi wants to fight Alexandre Pantoja
Upon securing a win on his UFC return, Kyoji Horiguchi called out UFC flyweight kingpin Alexandre Pantoja. Pantoja is scheduled to face Joshua Van next month at UFC 323. Horiguchi told Bisping:
“I feel really good because I come back to the UFC. This is my dream. I want to get the UFC belt. Where is Pantoja? He is my teammate, but it doesn’t matter. I will beat you up!”
Check out Kyoji Horiguchi’s comments below:
