Former UFC flyweight title challengers: Kyoji Horiguchi vs Ray Borg set for Bellator 295
Bellator 295, going down on April 22, 2023 live from the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, is shaping up to be a very exciting, much anticipated event.
Headlining the event is a bantamweight grand prix finale bout between interim champion Raufeon Stots (19-1) and no. 2 ranked Patchy Mix (17-1), just after the co-main event between no. 3 ranked former flyweight champion Ilima-Lei MacFarlane (12-2) and no. 2 ranked Kana Watanabe (11-1-1).
Our feature fight of the evening comes in the featherweight division when Aaron Pico (10-4) faces Otto Rodrigues (13-1) and opening up the main card is an epic flyweight matchup between former UFC title challengers Kyoji Horiguchi (31-5) and Ray Borg (16-5).
Kyoji Horiguchi, who won both the Rizin and Bellator bantamweight championships following his departure with the UFC, comes into the bout on a two-fight win streak. He left the UFC on a three-fight win streak following his title fight with Demetrious Johnson, and he’d go on to win his next 10-straight fights.
This saw him win each of those titles, both of which he ended up vacating. He was then knocked out by Kai Asakura in a non-title bout, before reclaiming the Rizin bantamweight championship in their immediate rematch, where he knocked Asakura out himself.
However, Horiguchi would again vacate his title, and his next fight would be for the Bellator bantamweight championship. Following roughly 18 minutes of fighting against Sergio Pettis, where he won merely every second dominantly, he was KO’d on the spot with a vicious spinning back fist.
Horiguchi was then defeated by Patchy Mix (UD), before winning his last two fights, both inside the Rizin ring.
Ray Borg on the other hand left the UFC following a split decision defeat to top contender Ricky Simon, making him 2-1 in his last three appearances at that point, and has since won his last three-straight.
His latest two performances showed him victorious over fellow UFC veteran Cody Gibson (UD), as well as former Bellator talent Ricky Bandajas (SD), both contests of which came under the Eagle FC banner.
Who walks away from this flyweight contest going down at Bellator 295 the victor?
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