SÃO PAULO — Kyoji Horiguchi returns to the UFC after a successful run as champion in RIZIN and Bellator, and his teammate Alexandre Pantoja would be happy to defend his flyweight title against him in the future.
The UFC has yet to announce a date and opponent for Horiguchi’s return fight in the octagon, and Pantoja envisions facing his American Top Team partner down the line if the Japanese star is able to put a win streak together.
“We have 100 fighters [at ATT],” Pantoja told MMA Fighting. “All the time we have teammates fighting. But Kyoji Horiguchi helped me get this belt. If I don’t have Kyoji Horiguchi, I don’t know if I have the opportunity to fight for the belt, I don’t know if I have the to be a champion one day. But I have Kyoji Horiguchi here on my side all my camps. And that’s what I say, if Kyoji Horiguchi helped me to conquer that, he helped my family too.
“And all the time I have the chance to say thank you to him, I say Kyoji, thank you for everything you did for me. And it’s gonna be a pleasure if I fight with him for the belt. Just for the belt. I don’t believe I’d fight with Kyoji without the belt, but for the belt, we are talking about that. And it’s gonna be like a gift, this opportunity to fight with Kyoji for the belt. I hope I can still hold this belt for so long and wait Kyoji for that. We really appreciate the opportunity. Me and him, I can make sure for you, when I spar with Kyoji in the gym, every fight stops in the gym and watches my training with him. It’s a pleasure. It’s like real gift to have Kyoji on my side.”
Pantoja said Horiguchi already has a UFC fight planned but couldn’t share the name and date. As for his next assignment after already successfully defending his belt three times against Brandon Moreno, Steve Erceg and Kai Asakura, the Brazilian 125-pounder said he welcomes any challenges.
“One of the things I really like about my division is everybody has opportunities,” Pantoja said. “When I fight with the No. 1 [Brandon] Royval and beat him two times. When I fight with the No. 2 Moreno, and beat him three times. And then the guys bring in the top-10 Erceg. And then they choose someone from outside the UFC [Asakura], another champ for another promotion. I think everybody have opportunities in my division, and I feel so happy for that. Nobody knows who’s my next opponent. Manel Kape? Brandon Moreno? Brandon Royval? Kai Kara-France? Nobody knows. Talk about Merab [Dvalishvili] too. And I love that. I love that everybody has opportunities.”
UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili will defend his title in early June in a rematch with Sean O’Malley, and Pantoja has mentioned in the past the idea of facing then-champion O’Malley. He no longer sees a window to aim for double gold in the UFC, adding “I have my own division to take care.” And with UFC 316 already stacked with two championship bouts, the aforementioned bantamweight clash and his teammate Kayla Harrison challenging Julianna Peña, Pantoja volunteers to compete at Las Vegas’ UFC 317 on June 28.
“I want to win my next fight. I think that’s my goal,” Pantoja said. “I [don’t] feel I’m the best fighter of the world right now. I’m not in a full camp. I’m coming to Brazil, I lose like 10 days of camp here. I need to [go] back to American Top Team, and when I’m back to American Top Team I know everybody gonna smash me. Especially Kyoji Horiguchi. Now he go to UFC. I know he gonna feel so happy to smash me. I feel that’s my mindset makes me very, very tough.
“I [don’t] feel the best fighter in the world right now, but I know when I sign my contract and I have the date to my fight, on that day I want to be the best fighter of world. That’s what I try. That’s my goal, the opportunity to be champion of world again. I want to be a champion of world again. And when I have the date, I want to be a champion again.”
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