A battle of UFC veterans are headlining Rizin 9 this May in a bantamweight division encounter as Kyoji Horiguchi takes on Ian McCall.
Horiguchi (23-2-0) won the Rizin Bantamweight Grand Prix last year, defeating Hideo Tokoro, Gabriel Leite De Oliveira, Manel Kape and Shintaro Ishiwatari. Horiguchi hasn?t suffered a defeat in almost three years and that last loss came to UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson at UFC 186 in April of 2015. Horiguchi won seven of eight fights under the UFC banner, with notable wins coming over Ali Bagautinov, Neil Seery, Chico Camus and Louis Gaudinot.
McCall (13-6-1) also competed in the 2017 Rizin Bantamweight Grand Prix, losing in the quarterfinals to Manel Kape. McCall has won just two of six fights during his four-plus year run in the UFC, with those victories coming over Iliarde Santos and Brad Pickett. McCall also competed in the California based Tachi Palace Fights promotion, where he defeated UFC fighter Dustin Ortiz.
Rizin 9 takes place on Sunday, May 6 from the Marine Messe Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan with Kyoji Horiguchi and Ian McCall headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which is going to be streaming live on Fite TV. The event will be called by Fightful.com's Showdown Joe Ferraro.