4/19/24: Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Sergio Pettis Rematch Booked For RIZIN 47
Also: Jorge Masvidal says he will "definitely" return to the UFC cage
Welcome to a Friday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Also, welcome to the weekend! We have a few short stories for you today, plus a preview of tonight’s PFL lineup. Tomorrow, we’ll be back with a PFL report, a preview of two notable European cards going down on Saturday, and all the latest from the MMA world. Let’s dig into today’s news.
Kyoji Horiguchi To Rematch Former Bellator Opponent Sergio Pettis At RIZIN 47
Kyoji Horiguchi will have the chance to avenge a late 2021 knockout loss when he faces Sergio Pettis later this year. A matchup between the bantamweight talents was announced on Friday for RIZIN 47, which is scheduled to take place on June 9th from the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
Pettis’ first fight against Horiguchi ended in highlight-reel fashion. Their late-2021 fight came to an end in the fourth round after a spinning back fist from Pettis dropped Horiguchi and caused the fight to stop. The bout continued Pettis’ Bellator Bantamweight Championship reign and shut down Horiguchi’s chances at regaining the belt after previously relinquishing it in 2019 due to injury.
Horiguchi has found success in recent years through appearances in RIZIN. He became the promotion’s first-ever flyweight champion on their 2023 New Year’s Eve card, submitting 125-pound prospect Makoto Shinryu in the second round with a rear naked choke. He’ll now chase down one of the last fighters to earn a victory over him.
Pettis is rematching Horiguchi after dropping his Bellator bantamweight title last year, getting submitted by Patchy Mix with a rear naked choke. The fight was his first loss since 2018, and his only unsuccessful performance since leaving the UFC roster a few years back.
Pettis’ Bellator title run also included a win over Patricio Pitbull and a victory against Juan Archuleta to initially gain the belt in 2021.
A match between Kleber Koike and Juan Archuleta was also announced for RIZIN 47 this week. Koike earned his first victory in over a year on New Year’s Eve, submitting Yutaka Saito. Archuleta is coming off a rough late-December appearance, missing weight and then getting stopped in the second round by RIZIN Bantamweight Champion Kai Asakura.
Jorge Masvidal Says He Will ‘Definitely’ Come Back to UFC
Despite his 2023 retirement, Jorge Masvidal hopes to be fighting in the UFC cage again soon.
Masvidal, 39, retired from MMA last year after suffering his fourth consecutive loss in the sport. With defeats to Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington and Gilbert Burns, Masvidal turned his attention toward his promoter role for boxing and bare-knuckle MMA shows that he runs mainly in Florida, USA.
It didn’t take long for Masvidal to announce his comeback to combat sports following his retirement. The MMA veteran is expected to face Nate Diaz in a boxing match on June 1st, competing in a bout that could go as long as 10 rounds.
After his match this weekend, Masvidal is looking toward a UFC return.
“I’m definitely coming back to the UFC and get a W for my city, for my family, my kids and everybody that believes in me,” he said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “I have to go back to the UFC.”
Before he worries about future MMA appearances, he must get through Diaz. Their bout will take place at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and will go head-to-head with the UFC 302 pay-per-view card airing that same evening.
Rising Flyweight Joshua Van Among Four Fights Added To UFC 302
Four more fights have been added to the undercard for UFC 302 on June 1st. The bouts will take place before Islam Makhachev puts his UFC Lightweight Championship on the line against Dustin Poirier from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, USA.
Van To Take On Ranked Sumudaerji
Joshua Van will have his first shot at getting into the top 15 flyweight standings when he takes on Sumudaerji.
Van has earned three victories since entering the UFC roster in 2023. He picked up his first finish in the promotion earlier this year, stopping Felipe Bunes in the second round with strikes.
Sumudaerji, the flyweight ranked 15th in the division currently, will be trying to get back into the win column after suffering losses to Matt Schnell and Tim Elliott.
Undefeated Almeida Meets Kopylov
Rising middleweight fighter Cesar Almeida will try for his second UFC win when he faces Roman Kopylov in June.
Almeida won his UFC debut just a couple of weeks back, stopping Dylan Budka in the second round with strikes. He made the full-time switch to MMA just last year, coming over after competing as a kickboxer. Almeida earned a UFC contract in August of last year with a win over Lucas Fernando on “Dana White’s Contender Series.” The 36-year-old will now receive a much bigger opponent when he fights Kopylov.
Kopylov had his rise up the middleweight standings stopped in February when Anthony Hernandez submitted him in the second round. Before then, the Russian contender had a four-fight streak of finish victories.
Pair of Welterweight Matchups Booked
Two more fights at the 170-pound limit were also added to the card.
In a matchup between two UFC veterans, Randy Brown and Elizeu Zaleski will collide. Zaleski had a two-fight winning streak broken late last year after a three-round bout against Rinat Fakhretdinov ended in a draw. Brown, on the other hand, is coming off a pair of wins, including a first-round finish against Muslim Salikhov in February.
In the other welterweight bout, it was announced that Niko Price has received a new matchup for UFC 302. After injury forced initial opponent Jeremiah Wells off the card, Alex Morono has stepped up in his place. Price has been unsuccessful in recent years and is coming off a 39-second loss to Robbie Lawler. Morono is getting somewhat of a quick turnaround, as he beat Court McGee on a card earlier this month as well.
After a flurry of announcements over the past week, the UFC 302 lineup looks pretty much complete. Here are all of the bouts known currently:
Bout 13: Islam Makhachev (25-1) vs. Dustin Poirier (30-8) (UFC Lightweight Championship)
Bout 12: Sean Strickland (28-6) vs. Paulo Costa (14-3) (Middleweight)
Bout 11: Roman Dolidze (12-3) vs. Anthony Hernandez (12-2) (Middleweight)
Bout 10: Jailton Almeida (20-3) vs. Alexandr Romanov (17-2) (Heavyweight)
Bout 9: Joselyne Edwards (13-5) vs. Ailin Perez (9-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 8: Mickey Gall (7-5) vs. Bassil Hafez (8-4-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 7: Grant Dawson (20-2-1) vs. Joe Solecki (13-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 6: Phil Rowe (10-4) vs. Jake Matthews (19-7) (Welterweight)
Bout 5: Park Hyun-sung (9-0) vs. Andre Lima (8-0) (Flyweight)
Bout 4: Sumudaerji (16-6) vs. Joshua Van (10-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 3: Roman Kopylov (12-3) vs. Cesar Almeida (5-0) (Middleweight)
Bout 2: Randy Brown (18-5) vs. Elizeu Zaleski (24-7-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Niko Price (15-7) vs. Alex Morono (24-9) (Welterweight)
Preview
PFL Finishes Up First Leg of Regular Season In Chicago
PFL’s busy month will come to an end this Friday from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The third and final event for the opening leg of PFL’s 2024 regular season will see welterweight and featherweight talents compete.
Previous weeks saw men’s heavyweight, light heavyweight, lightweight, and women’s flyweight divisions fight for regular season points. After this weekend, all six divisions for the 2024 season will have fought once. All divisions are expected to return in June for another trio of events, giving them a second and final chance to earn points that can put them into the four-person, single-elimination playoff bracket later this year.
A trend seen throughout the PFL this year is clear tonight as well: The promotion’s acquisition of the Bellator roster has completely overhauled the regular season lineup lineups. More than 10 different former Bellator talents will be chasing their first PFL belt, beginning this weekend. This includes notable welterweights like Andrey Koreshkov, Goiti Yamauchi, Neiman Gracie, Logan Storley, and Brennan Ward. At featherweight, names like Adam Borics, Enrique Barzola, Pedro Carvalho, and Kai Kamaka III jump off the page.
But along with the Bellator pickups are many big names from PFL’s recent years. 2022 featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane will be chasing his second belt this year, coming back after getting stopped in the regular season by Jesus Pinedo in 2023. Bubba Jenkins, the 2022 finalist who lost to Loughnane, will enter his fourth PFL season in hopes of earning a belt at 145 pounds.
While most of the fighters on this card will head into Friday night with zero points, one will be aiming to dig themselves out of the negatives. Laureano Staropoli missed weight by four pounds on Thursday, causing him to get deducted one point in the welterweight standings. He’ll be taking on undefeated Murad Ramazanov, who is coming over to the PFL after earning a trio of wins in ONE Championship.
The top 10 bouts of the evening will be part of the 2024 PFL regular season. A featherweight fight between Tyler Diamond and Otto Rodrigues is billed as an alternate bout for the season, meaning it isn’t part of the regular season standings. The opening matchup between undefeated welterweight Thad Jean and Romain Debienne is a showcase match, unrelated to the season.
Here’s the bout order:
Main Card (9:30PM EDT / 8:30PM CDT) (ESPN / ESPN+)
Bout 12: Andrey Koreshkov (27-4) vs. Magomed Umalatov (14-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 11: Brendan Loughnane (27-5) vs. Pedro Carvalho (13-8) (Featherweight)
Bout 10: Logan Storley (15-2) vs. Shamil Musaev (16-0-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 9: Gabriel Alves Braga (12-1) vs. Justin Gonzales (14-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 8: Goiti Yamauchi (28-6) vs. Neiman Gracie (12-4) (Welterweight)
Bout 7: Bubba Jenkins (21-7) vs. Kai Kamaka III (12-5-1) (Featherweight)
Preliminary Card (7:00PM EDT / 6:00PM CDT) (ESPN+)
Bout 6: Adam Borics (18-2) vs. Enrique Barzola (20-7-2) (Featherweight)
Bout 5: Timur Khizriev (14-0) vs. Brett Johns (20-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 4: Laureano Staropoli (13-5) vs. Murad Ramazanov (11-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 3: Don Madge (10-4-1) vs. Brennan Ward (17-7) (Welterweight)
Bout 2: Tyler Diamond (12-3) vs. Otto Rodrigues (14-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 1: Romain Debienne (10-4) vs. Thad Jean (6-0) (Welterweight)
Notes On: UFC, ONE Championship & KSW
UFC
Daniel Marcos (15-0) will face John Castaneda (21-6) at UFC’s June 8th card, per social media posts made by both fighters. Marcos will be searching for his third win since joining the roster. His last appearance resulted in an unsatisfying no contest result after an unintentional groin shot. Castaneda is coming off his first-ever two-fight winning streak in the UFC, beating Muin Gafurov and Kang Kyung-ho in recent months.
ONE Championship
Adrian Lee, a younger brother of former and current ONE Championship fighters Angela and Christian Lee, has inked a deal with the Singapore-based promotion. Lee will make his promotional debut at ONE 167 on June 8th against Antonio Mammarella, as announced by the promotion this week.
KSW
In a matchup between combat sports, light heavyweights Krzysztof Glowacki (1-0) and Dawid Kasperski (1-0) will meet at KSW 95 on June 7th in Poland. Glowacki, a boxer with over 30 pro wins, prevailed in his pro debut last June with a first-round stoppage over Patryk Tolkaczewski. Kasperski comes from a kickboxing background and won his debut just two months back against Vasil Ducar.