Over the last decade, Kyoji Horiguchi has been proving, again and again, that he’s one of the best mixed martial artists in the world. Last week, he proved it once again.

Beating Horiguchi puts you in a very exclusive club. Only three men have ever managed it. In 2012, the much more experienced Masakatsu Ueda, then one of the top-ranked bantamweights in the world, beat Horiguchi by a very close decision in Shooto. Three years later, the great Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, the greatest flyweight of all time at his absolute peak, submitted Horiguchi in the fifth round of a UFC title fight.

Two years later, Horiguchi departed the UFC to become a cornerstone of RIZIN, back in his home country. He subsequently reeled off a 13-fight win streak where only three opponents made it out of the second round. But last August, rising Japanese star Kai Asakura stunned Horiguchi with a first-round KO, joining that elite club.

Horiguchi never got a chance to rematch Ueda, who fought with Bellator and ONE while Horiguchi was in the UFC and last competed in May 2018. Promotional dealings may keep him from ever seeing Johnson again, as great as another fight might be. But he could damn sure get his hands on Asakura one more time. And last week, Horiguchi cemented legendary status by regaining the RIZIN bantamweight title in just three minutes.

In Asakura, Horiguchi was facing perhaps the single most dangerous opponent he has shared a ring with since the Johnson fight. Asakura had the advantage in speed, quickness, raw power and youth, and fights with a reckless abandon that can be both his greatest strength and biggest weakness. Last year, Asakura rushed him and caught Horiguchi off-guard. The champion didn’t let it happen a second time.

Horiguchi had quite a few disadvantages heading into the fight. He was also coming off a severe knee injury that cost him over a year of his career. But Horiguchi put together a gameplan to deal with the unique challenges of fighting someone like Asakura, and he executed it perfectly. Horiguchi took some of the juice out of Asakura’s legs early with heavy, perfectly-timed kicks that sent the young gun down to a knee. And when Asakura leapt into the air for a flying knee, Horiguchi saw it coming a mile away immediately crushing him with an overhand right and following up with a few more accurate punches that forced the referee to step in.

In some ways, last week’s fight was the biggest Horiguchi has been in since he left the UFC. It ended with him joyously yelling to his corner, “Easy fight! Easy fight!” Kai Asakura shouldn’t be an easy fight for anyone. But Kyoji Horiguchi isn’t just anyone.

Whether in the UFC or elsewhere, Horiguchi’s resume speaks for itself. Few can match the way he’s piled up win after win after win over such a long period of time, against high-level competition. Last year, by beating Darrion Caldwell for the second consecutive time, he became one of the only fighters ever to become a world champion in two different major organizations simultaneously. He went 7-1 in the UFC, with his only loss coming to the peak form of maybe the greatest fighter ever. His training sessions with American Top Team have become the stuff of legend – stablemates like Jorge Masvidal tell stories about how the diminutive Japanese fighter routinely beats the ass of everyone at the gym.

Few fighters in the world blend all of Horiguchi’s talents. He mixes good physical tools with strong, precise striking – few at his weight class have his kind of raw punching power – and he can more than hang in the grappling game. He reads his opponents exceptionally well and has developed terrific discipline in the ring. When he’s at the top of his game, it’s tough to envision anyone outside the world’s most elite beating him.

All of this, and Horiguchi is still just 30 years old. There’s plenty of time for him to have another high-quality UFC run, if he desires it – you’d figure he’d instantly be inserted as a top-five flyweight, and would be favored against every 125-pounder in the company outside of champion Deiveson Figueiredo. He could stay as RIZIN’s signature star and continue to elevate the sport in his home country – maybe, along the way, the Bellator belt will find its way back around his waist again as well.

Few titles and accomplishments seem out of the reach of Kyoji Horiguchi, one of the world’s complete mixed martial artists. We’re privileged to watch a fighter like this in his prime, and he still seems like he has so much left to do.