USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Jan. 5: Kyoji Horiguchi rebounds

A champion in RIZIN and Bellator and a title challenger in the UFC, Kyoji Horiguchi has proven himself one of the world’s finest lighter-weight competitors by actually going and winning all over the world.

Horiguchi hit some obstacles in 2020, but he finished the year in a manner which suggests he’ll be right back on track in 2021.

The Japanese competitor lost a stunning upset to Kai Asukara in 2019, then missed most of 2020 due to a knee injury.

On Dec. 31, however, Horiguchi returned to the ring at Rizin FF 26, extracted revenge, defeated Asukara, and regained the Rizin bantamweight belt.

Horiguchi remains a threat at both flyweight and bantamweight, and with that, he returns to our 135-pound rankings in the honorable mention section.

And that quite frankly was the only performance of note as the MMA world took a much-needed breather to end the year. If you’d like a refresher on where your favorite — or least favorite — competitor rates — go to the drop-down menu above and select a division.