UFC Fight Night 52 Adds Kyoji Horiguchi, Takanori Gomi, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Others

[Swinny]

UFC Fight Night 52 adds Kyoji Horiguchi, Takanori Gomi, Yoshihiro Akiyama, others

September’s return to Japan, UFC Fight Night 52, will feature some local talent, officials today announced.

During a press conference in Tokoyo, some familiar names were announced the card (via MMAFighting.com), which takes place Sept. 20 at Saitama Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The event, which features a previously announced headliner between heavyweights Roy Nelson and Mark Hunt, is expected to stream on UFC Fight Pass.

In flyweight action, Kyoji Horiguchi (13-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), a Japanese who’s picked up UFC wins over Dustin Pague and Darrell Montague to move his overall winning streak to seven fights, meets Chris Cariaso (17-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC), who looks to cement his contender status with a fourth straight UFC win.

Cariaso is ranked No. 11 and Horiguchi is an honorable mention in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA flyweight rankings.

Also on the card is middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-5 MMA, 1-4 UFC), who looks to snap a four-fight losing streak when he fights for the first time since early 2012.

Other additions lightweight Takanori Gomi (35-9 MMA, 4-4 UFC), who’s won three of his past four while earning a pair of “Fight of the Nightâ€￾ awards, and bantamweight Norifumi Yamamoto (18-6 MMA, 0-3 UFC), who’s lost all three of his UFC fights to date and fights for the first time since early 2012.

Opponents for the three Japanese fighters are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

The latest UFC Fight Night 52 card includes:

Mark Hunt vs. Roy Nelson
Rin Nakai vs. Miesha Tate
Chris Cariaso vs. Kyoji Horiguchi
Takanori Gomi vs. opponent TBA
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. opponent TBA
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. opponent TBA

MMAJunkie

 

[The Great Cochrane]

Akiyama's fighting on the card? I thought for sure he would have been cut by now.

 

[Swinny]

He's just still such a big draw in Japan that it makes sense for the UFC to keep him around. I thought he actually looked good against Shields at 170 and his judo looked sharp. The UFC just haven't done a good job of booking the guy. He loses to Leben then instead of getting a step down he gets a fight against Bisping. Then after that loss he gets another step up against Belfort and then gets a difficult welterweight debut against Shields.

So here's hoping he returns at 170 and gets an opponent that's on the same level as him right now and puts on a good fight.