{"id":750847,"date":"2026-06-21T12:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750847\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:57:12","slug":"kyoji-horiguchi-apologizes-after-ufc-vegas-119-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750847\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyoji Horiguchi Apologizes After UFC Vegas 119 Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cKarate Kid\u201d will be back.<\/p>\n

Following the disappointing stoppage loss, the Japanese star released a short message on social media addressing his fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you all for your support.
I got knocked out pretty badly. I\u2019m truly sorry.<\/p>\n

Kape was strong. Thank you!<\/p>\n

This is why I can\u2019t quit martial arts.
I\u2019ll retrain and be back in no time!
I\u2019m not giving up on my dream yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horiguchi (36-6-1) suffered his first loss since returning to UFC and had his impressive seven-fight win streak snapped. During that run, he scored notable wins over Sergio Pettis, Amir Albazi and Tagir Ulanbekov (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Horiguchi was up on the scorecards going into round three.<\/p>\n

While Horiguchi remains one of the best Flyweights in the world, the loss has knocked him out of immediate title contention. Before Saturday\u2019s setback, he was trying to set up a dream title fight with teammate<\/a> Alexandre Pantoja, assuming Pantoja reclaims the Flyweight title later this year.<\/p>\n

That dream will have to wait.<\/p>\n

For now, a \u201cJapan vs. Japan\u201d showdown with Tatsuro Taira feels like the perfect next move.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>\"MMA<\/p>\n

Who impressed you the most at UFC Vegas 119?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Closes in 3 days \u2022 3 total votesView results<\/p>\n

Manel KapeNavajo StirlingChristian RodriguezMurtazeli MagomedovVinicius OliveiraOther (see comments)Rec 0CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReplyRead 1 repliesFor more UFC Vegas 119 results, coverage and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cKarate Kid\u201d will be back. Following the disappointing stoppage loss, the Japanese star released a short message on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,6656,355513],"class_list":["post-750847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}