Alexandre Pantoja: I Wouldn’t Be UFC Champion Without Kyoji Horiguchi

After Alex Pereira lost to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313Alexandre Pantoja was left as the only Brazilian holding a UFC belt.

This week, the reigning flyweight king was in Brazil for the launch of the new UFC Fight Pass documentary “Long Story Short,” which stars Pantoja and middleweight contender Caio Borralho. The launch event will be closed to the press on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

Before heading to São Paulo, however, Pantoja stopped by his hometown of Rio de Janeiro, where he spoke with Sherdog.com about his expectations for his return to the Octagon and also about the UFC return of his great friend and training partner, Kyoji Horigushi.

“I was really happy with Kyoji’s return. When they hired Kai Asakura, I even joked that they hired the wrong Japanese guy,” revealed the champion. “Jokes aside, I am a huge fan of Kyoji and very grateful because without him I would not have won the UFC belt. I will only fight him if it is for the belt, which would be one of the greatest achievements of my career. It is truly an honor, a pleasure and a privilege because he was the one who helped me give my family a better life and get to where I am today.”

Regarding his return, Pantoja admitted that he was already training for UFC 314 in Miami when he was removed from the card.

“I was already in camp when they removed me from the card. I hope to fight in June or July,” Pantoja said. “Now I'm waiting for the title fights to be decided at UFC 316 and 317. Juliana [Pena] vs. Kayla [Harrison] and Merab [Dvalishvili] vs. [Sean] O’Malley were considered, but it's not official yet.

Even without knowing which event and who he will fight, the champion promises that he will start his camp in the coming days.

“At first I thought that my next opponent would be Kai Kara-France, but after [Brandon] Moreno and [Manel] Kape's victories, I don't know who the UFC will choose. Regardless of who it is, I'll be in Florida on Sunday to start my camp,” concluded Pantoja.