Kyoji Horiguchi Injures Knee, Withdraws From Rizin 20 Headliner and Vacates Rizin Belt

本日の記者会見で発表しましたが、堀口恭司vs.朝倉海の試合は堀口選手の怪我により、中止とさせて頂きました。楽しみにしていたファンの皆様にお詫び申し上げますと共に、堀口選手の回復を心よりお祈り致します。又、海選手の対戦相手も早急に決めて来週中には追加カードと共に発表したいと思います。 pic.twitter.com/dHnUyXUtnH

— NOBUYUKI SAKAKIBARA (@nobu_sakakibara) November 14, 2019

Bellator MMA and Rizin Fighting Federation have both lost their bantamweight champion for the good part of a year.

On Thursday, Rizin announced that Kyoji Horiguchi has suffered a knee injury, tearing his ACL and damaging his meniscus as well. The recovery time is slated to take upwards of 10 months to a year. Horiguchi was the two-promotion champion at 135 pounds, winning the Rizin belt against Darrion Caldwell at Rizin 14 in 2018. From there, Horiguchi went to Bellator in June to rematch Caldwell, and captured his belt by decision as well. He has since stated that he will be relinquishing his Rizin title, but it remains to be seen if he remains the Bellator bantamweight king for long.

Horiguchi also released a statement, which reads:

"I am terribly sorry. I have injured myself and have just had surgery. And I am forced to withdraw from the Rizin 20 event…when I think about everybody who was looking forward to my fight on NYE I am lost in words and have an indescribable feeling of guilt for everybody. I am sorry. I am sorry to Kai Asakura, I am sorry to all the fans. I cannot describe how I feel in words.

"I have been fighting as a professional for about 10 years since graduating high school and it's not that I haven't suffered any injuries but I was able to come all this way without any serious injuries. But I have felt some abnormalities in my body from last year but I didn't take these signs too seriously. I started to train in October but failed to realize how much wear and tear my body has obtained. And my ligament in my knee snapped. This was all because I took my body's warnings lightly.

"I will be repeating myself to say I am terribly sorry about my injury and my withdraw[al] from the fight. But I have decided to take this opportunity to heal my body and focus on recovering so I can start off with a fresh mind and body.

"I will need to overcome this obstacle to fulfill my goal to revive the Japanese fight scene. I believe that I need to use this opportunity to start over and rebuild towards that goal. I grew up watching Pride and that is why I became a fighter. I will not stop until the Japanese fight scene is back to where it used to be or even better.

"I am finally recovering from my surgery and just started rehabilitation on Monday in Florida. I have been down all this time but now my mind is set and I know what I need to do. However, I still cannot take a single step. I will work hard and focus on showing you the stronger and better version of Kyoji Horiguchi. And hopefully I can take part in reviving the Japanese fight scene. Oss."

In August, Horiguchi suffered the first knockout loss of his career when Asakura stopped him with punches 67 seconds into the first round. Unfortunately for Asakura, the fight was booked as a non-title affair, so Asakura did not win the belt despite finishing the champion in that promotion. The two were set to rematch Rizin 20, where Asakura would vie for the championship this time. Rizin will be making an upcoming announcement about its plan for vacated title, as well as a new matchup for Asakura if it intends to keep him on the event.