Few fighters know Kyoji Horiguchi as well as Alexandre Pantoja does.
Horiguchi (35-5 MMA, 8-1 UFC) announced his return to the Octagon in spectacular fashion at UFC Qatar last Saturday. In his first UFC appearance in 9 years, the Japanese star dominated Tagir Ulanbekov before submitting him in the third round.
He went on to call out current flyweight champion Pantoja (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) during his post-fight interview…a surprise, considering the pair have become close friends while training together at American Top Team in Florida in recent years.
“Amazing performance,” Pantoja responded to Home of Fight when asked his opinion on Horiguchi’s showing in Doha. “I know how good Kyoji is. I train with him every day. He evolves my game so much. When I arrived here in America... I think he was already here, and I learned a lot. And I remember in this same room here, when he talked about coming back to the UFC, what I thought about it, and I told him, ‘If you want to go to the UFC to try to take this belt, I'm going to help you conquer that, you know, because you helped me.’ And that’s what I think about that, you know.”
Pantoja has held the UFC flyweight title since beating Brandon Moreno in July of 2023. As he prepares to step into his 6th consecutive title fight when he faces Joshua Van in the co-main event at UFC 323 on December 6, the Brazilian is coming around to the possibility that he may have to face his friend and training next should he emerge victorious next week.
“I think the only thing of course, I have Joshua first, you know, but I think if one day I'm fighting Kyoji Horiguchi, it's going to be for the title, of course,” Pantoja said. “But I need to understand in my mind, because I love this guy so much, it’s going to be hard for me to think about hurting him in a fight. Like I said, that’s just business, you know? But I care about him. And when he fights, me and my family cheer for him.
“I know it's going to be a friendly fight, you know. I think I can’t make a lot of trash talk with Kyoji, you know? Kyoji has helped me a lot. I believe Kyoji is one of the reasons I'm the champion of the world right now.”
