Former Bellator bantamweight champion Kyoji
Horiguchi will return to action at Rizin
38 against Yuto
Hokamura on Sept. 25.
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The Japanese promotion recently confirmed that pairing along with
four other bouts: Hiromasa
Ougikubo vs. Soo Chul
Kim at bantamweight; Kyohei
Hagiwara vs. Chihiro
Suzuki at featherweight; Juri Ohara
vs.
Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos Felix dos Santos at lightweight
and Shoma
Shibisai vs.
Callyugibrainn Marinho Borges de Oliveira at heavyweight.
Rizin 38 takes place at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama Japan and
also includes a Super Rizin portion of the card, which will feature
a
previously reported exhibition boxing match between Floyd
Mayweather and Mikuru
Asakura.
The 31-year-old Horiguchi has lost three of his last four
professional fights. He last appeared as part of Bellator’s
135-pound grand prix, where he dropped a five-round verdict to
Patrick
Mix in the quarterfinals of the bracket on April 23.
Horiguchi’s lone victory during that stretch came when he knocked
out Kai
Asakura in a bantamweight title bout at Rizin 26 in December
2020. While Horiguchi is still the Rizin bantamweight champion, his
matchup with Hokamura will be a non-title bout.
Hokamura went 1-2 in 2021 and is coming off back-to-back decision
defeats to Naoki Inoue
and Yuki
Motoya under the Rizin banner. The Pancrase and Deep veteran
has compiled a 14-11-2 mark over the course of a professional
tenure that began in 2011.