Rizin bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi is a free agent. The 30 year old revealed on an American Top Team podcast that he is in talks with other promotions,
“Right now I don’t have a belt. I am a free agent right now,” he said.
Horiguchi is based at American Top Team and managed by Dan Lambert who hinted that the former Bellator bantamweight champion could end up joining that promotion on a permanent basis,
“He’s very popular in Japan, he left the UFC (because) they offered him significantly more money in Japan. There’s a lot of interest in Kyoji from Bellator, the UFC is always looking for the best fighters in the world. Kyoji is going to make a decision pretty soon,” he said.
Horiguchi says he has returned the Rizin title and is set to make a decision on his future in the coming days. He also talked about starting out in the sport and paid tribute to Krazy Bee founder Kid Yamamoto who sadly passed away in 2018,
“My dream was to become Kid Yamamoto. I stayed in a dorm (at Krazy Bee) and sometimes I worked at the front desk. A year later I became a professional fighter. It was hard, I had no money just training.”
Reigning ONE Championship flyweight champion Adriano Moraes was also on the podcast and listed all the cities he had fought in. Horiguchi has never been anywhere in Asia outside of Japan and his manager joked he should sign with the promotion too.
