Johnson vs. Horiguchi

This is the official discussion thread for Johnson vs. Horiguchi. Let's see what you've got.

It should be entertaining, and it's a quality co-main, but it's too soon for Horiguchi.

I think it is too soon for Horiguchi. He is without a doubt my favorite FlyW though and I hope he takes that title home.

Would love to see GUCHI MANE get that strap. But alas, DJ is too good. 

Even Horiguchi himself said he's not ready, after he beat Louis Gaudinot.

When UFC has divisions like 125 or Woman's 135 and probably even 115 they wind up being how UFC was pre TUF. Where they just need people for the champion to face, so they grab whatever decent record they can put in with them. Back in the day fighters made their UFC debut in title fights. Andre Pedineras fought for the UFC title with a 1-0 pro MMA record. 

The problem is that most adult men will not be able to fight in the 125 division. So, it's difficult to just "find" prospects because really small men who are super talented don't come along as often as a 155 or 170 lb person. 

Damnnnnn youuuuuu Linekerrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

In theory, men's 125 is supposed to be populated by Asian and Central American fighters that tend to be smaller in stature.  

Right ^, and the UFC is currently trying to expand into those markets. Obviously JMMA is already popular, but the 125 division will be a lot better on down the road when MMA is more popular in the Central American and East Asian markets. We just have to wade through the ****** "first wave" of fighters from these markets. 

As much as I am a big fan of Kyoji Horiguchi, he shouldn't be fighting for the belt this soon.  He should have been given a fight against Dodson or Benavidez in a Flyweight title eliminator match, so that he can test his skills against some of the top guys in the division and use it as a way to prepare himself for a fight against Mighty Mouse.

  I'm still going to pick Horiguchi because I feel he has a small chance of potentially beating Johnson for the title, but I won't be surprised if he loses. I just hope that the UFC can properly build up this Flyweight division and not waste future talents that are currently in the division like Makovsky, Holohan, and Cejudo by having them fight Johnson too early because they had a 3-4 fight win streak in the division like they did to Bagautinov and what will most likely happen (unfortunately) to Horiguchi.

Just for discussion, what is the alternative to Horiguchi? Formiga I guess, but he would be in the same boat. No one is ready for a title fight in this division, so what do they do with a champ with no challenges. Clearly Mighty Mouse should coach TUF to slow down the number of title fights he has, but other than that he needs to fight. I'd give Dodson another shot at this point before Horiguchi or Formiga though. Build some of these guys up.

@FantasyMMA Well as you said, Dodson is a strong first choice candidate to challenge Mighty Mouse again, but Dodson has only fought twice since losing to Johnson with his last fight being in June of 2014; so I don't know if he should be getting another title shot yet (again, this would have been a perfect time to match him up against Horiguchi for a title eliminator bout).  Lineker would have also been a good first choice candidate, but since the guy failed to make weight for the 4th ******* time, any momentum he had to fight Johnson is completely gone.  Moraga and Benavidez could have been good opponents for Johnson, but they are in the same boat as Dodson.  Ali Bagautinov could have possibly been in the title picture again if he didn't test positive for EPO, which wiped out any chance to get a couple more fights and rebuild the momentum he had in 2014 after he lost to Johnson.

  Outside of that; you have McCall who is inconsistent, Cariaso who just lost to Johnson for the belt, Camus who just moved down to 125, and a bunch of potential stars in the division like Holohan and Cejudo who don't have enough fights in the UFC yet to make a claim as contenders for the belt (although I personally think both will be contenders in the near future).  In the end, that leaves Kyoji Horiguchi as the only fighter at 125 with an impressive enough resume currently to earn him a title shot.

If the UFC wants to have people taking the Flyweight division seriously, they need to start adding some quality depth to this division quick.  Personally I think they should try and bring in Flyweight fighters like Adriano Moraes and Alexandre Pantoja.

As a side note; I would say that the UFC should potentially bump some more bantamweights down to flyweight like Sergio Pettis and Manny Gamburyan.

Sergio Pettis is fighting Ryan Benoit at UFC 185, so I'm sure they're hoping he can do big things there.

They really should pick up Alexandre Pantoja, the Flyweight champ from RFA. The fact that the UFC haven't made such an easy signing makes me doubt how serious they are in building the division.

* Edited at 02.10.2015, 11:17 PM ET *

Too soon.

I don't rate or rank Formiga as high as Horiguchi. There is no one else out there that ranked as high and hasn't fought DJ yet. He might not be ready to fight for the title yet, but the title fight is ready for him.

@greenhornet great post man. That about sums that up haha. I actually think the division is pretty good and has some really good fighters, but DJ has either already beat them (Joey, Dodson, Baga, Moraga) or they haven't fought enough in the UFC (Cejudo, Holohan, Horiguchi). Just a tough spot for that division.

@Fantasy, I agree, I love the 125 division too ... yeah, the championship race is a bit off but there are so many fun fighters to watch if you actually like MMA and aren't just here for the knockouts.

Another couple of "honorable mentions" I think need to be added to your list are Ray Borg, who I think is going to be special and even with his falters of late I still believe in Scoggins as the future of the division. He's got all the tools to go far (I still maintain there's no way he lost to Ortiz who's also a top level fighter and was dominating Moraga until made a stupid mistake) and is also still very young. He's a good wrestler, his Karate based striking is a different look, he transitions between the two well and has solid jitz for his age. He's also perfect size and speed-wise to be great in the weight class. He just needs to mature a bit and stop making dumb mistakes, but that's acceptable at 22 years old.

I personally see title races as interesting and fun but secondary to watching two skilled fighters showcase said skill in a cage. I like finishes like everyone, but a good decision between two skilled fighters with great exchanges both on the feet and ground is much more enjoyable that two heavyweights  who waddle towards each other even if it ends up in a slobber-knocking KO and in the 125 division you simple get more of those.

So yeah, even though it's hard to find a viable contender for DJ, the division itself has a ****load of guys I like to watch fight.

* Edited at 02.11.2015, 9:23 AM ET *

Fanboy picking right here^

I really like Horiguchi, but I don't see how he wins this. I thought he was smart a while back saying he didn't want to fight for a title. He's young. Why rush things? If the Horiguchi who fought Gaudinot shows up, Johnson will outwork him everywhere.