Kai Asakura vows to repeat feat and finish Kyoji Horiguchi at Rizin FF 26

Rizin FF bantamweight champion Kai Asakura said he’s fully prepared to welcome Kyoji Horiguchi back to the ring at Rizin FF 26 by handing the American Top Team ace another knockout loss.

Asakura (16-2) stunned the MMA world when he finished then-champion Horiguchi (28-3) in just 68 seconds in a non-title bout at Rizin FF 18 in 2019, but their planned rematch for Horiguchi’s bantamweight crown fell through when the champion suffered a knee injury.

Horiguchi relinquished his Rizin title, as well as the Bellator bantamweight belt he also held at the time, but Asakura was unable to capitalize, as he was knocked out by Manel Kape at Rizin FF 20 on New Year’s Eve last year.

Kape departed Rizin for the UFC, and Asakura went back to the drawing board in preparation for another tilt at the title. That chance came at Rizin FF 23, and he bounced back in style with a first-round soccer-kick finish of “The Ultimate Fighter Season 24” finalist Hiromasa Ogikubo to claim the vacant belt. He then cemented his champion status with another soccer-kick finish, this time against Shoji Maruyama, at Rizin FF 24.

Riding a two-win, two-knockout streak heading into Rizin FF 26 on New Year’s Eve, Asakura said he’s heading into his rematch with Horiguchi an improved fighter from their first meeting.

“This fight is finally happening,” he said during Rizin’s pre-fight video series, “Rizin Confessions.” “I’ve gotten much better than when we last fought. I plan to do the same thing again.”

Asakura attributes much of his improvement to his sharpened striking skills, honed under the tutelage of former WBA super featherweight super champion Takashi Uchiyama. But he also cited his defeat to Kape as key moment, as he realized he needed to level up other aspects of his preparation.

“My boxing has improved the most in the past year and a half, although I’m improving overall,” he said.

“Thinking back after the loss (to Kape), I may have been overconfident. I never realized losing was so mortifying. I realized that I had much to work on. I shouldn’t rely on my striking too much.”

It meant that, while Asakura continued to improve his striking, he threw himself in a strength and conditioning program that he said has left him in the best shape of his career.

“I’m working out like crazy,” he said. “I feel like I’ve gotten so much stronger. I’m much better than my last loss.”

Asakura is already a star in Japan, but to some outside of his homeland, he’s still viewed as the underdog against the returning former champion, who never lost his belt in the ring.

But Asakura will head into fight night as the defending champion and plans to maintain the status quo by handing Horiguchi another defeat and announcing himself to the world as one of the most dangerous 135-pound fighters on the planet.

“I’ve already received the torch, so he doesn’t have to worry,” said a confident Asakura. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but he’s not getting his revenge.”

Rizin FF 26 takes place on New Year’s Eve at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event streams live on LIVENow.