UFC fans, especially newer ones, may not have realized Manel Kape and Kyoji Horiguchi had already fought nearly a decade prior to headlining Saturday’s Fight Night card.
Their initial meeting was in Saitama, Japan, on New Year’s Eve in 2017 as part of RIZIN’s bantamweight grand prix.
It was a terrific scrap with momentum shifts galore, ending with Horiguchi getting a submission win.
The rematch took place at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas with the two athletes now flyweight contenders in the UFC and among the most talented 125-pounders in all of mixed martial arts.
Kape was only 24 and still relatively green in MMA when he first fought Horiguchi, who had already challenged for a title in the UFC and won RIZIN and Bellator titles at that point in his career.
He got his revenge on Horiguchi in the rematch with a third-round technical knockout victory. It was Kape’s fourth consecutive win by KO/TKO and his third UFC Fight Night main event in a row.
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The sequel began with the pair of fast-twitch flyweights gauging the timing and movement of the other. Kape, who can make the argument he is the fastest fighter in the entire sport whilst the action is on the feet, stood mostly southpaw but also would switch stances on his attacks, as Horiguchi bounced from his orthodox karate-style stance.
Horiguchi started well in the opening 10 minutes, out-landing Kape and taking the action to the ground in each of the first two rounds, but in the third, Kape tagged Horiguchi with a counter-right that had the older fighter on wobbly legs. Kape chose his follow-up shots wisely and landed a finishing blow that saw Horiguchi’s face smack off the canvas before the referee waved off the fight.
The 32-year-old fighting out of Portugal by way of Angola entered the weekend ranked the No. 2 contender in the division, and an emphatic win such as this shows Kape is worthy of a title shot.
Kape is on an 8-1 run in the UFC with consecutive KO/TKO wins over Bruno Silva, Asu Almabayev and one-time flyweight title challenger Brandon Royval.
His lone loss during those five years was when he was outwrestled for three rounds by Muhammad Mokaev two summers ago – a matchup that infamously had little action mere days after Kape and Mokaev brawled in a hotel lobby.
Kape has rounded out his skill set in recent years and overcame Horiguchi’s takedowns and top game en route to extending his win streak.
Horiguchi is in his second tenure in the UFC. He returned to the organization last year with a win over Tagir Ulanbekov in November and started his 2026 campaign by beating Amir Albazi in February.
The 35-year-old from Japan previously fought for the UFC title in 2015 when he was submitted at the last second by former longtime champion Demetrious Johnson. In addition to his previous win over Kape, Horiguchi has also defeated fellow RIZIN champ-turned-UFC-star Kai Asakura plus fellow former Bellator champions Sergio Pettis and Darrion Caldwell.
Saturday’s 12-fight card took place just six days after the organization held its heavily promoted UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House.
There were no special lighting rigs, flyovers, unique walkouts or secret service at the Meta Apex on Saturday night, but there was one notable attendee.
UFC men’s flyweight champion Joshua Van was cageside during the event, supporting a teammate who fought on the preliminary card but also scoping out the potential competition.
Van is coming off a thrilling title defence over Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328 in May after initially winning the title off Alexandre Pantoja in December when Pantoja sustained a fluke arm injury less than a minute into the fight.
The UFC could look to book a rematch between Van and Pantoja – the former champ does hold a 2021 non-title decision win over Kape – but if Pantoja’s return is delayed, Kape may have just secured himself the next shot at UFC gold.
Earlier on the card, Navajo Stirling passed the toughest test of his UFC career so far with a technical knockout win over Ion Cutelaba in the co-main event.
The 28-year-old from New Zealand had to defend several aggressive choke attempts from Cutelaba in the first round and rained down unanswered punches midway through the second round after Cutelaba was affected by a damaging knee to the midsection.
Stirling is 10-0 in the sport, with half of those wins coming at the UFC level. He is already 2-0 in 2026 after his TKO of Bruno Silva in late March.
Murtazali Magomedov won his UFC debut with a marvellous submission of Melsik Baghdasaryan. Kyrgyzstan’s Magomedov, 26, locked in a modified twister in the first round to improve to 11-0 with five knockouts and six submissions.
Magomedov became just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win a fight via twister, joining “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sun Jung, Bryce Mitchell and Da’Mon Blackshear.
Christian Rodriguez snapped a two-fight skid and picked up his first win since the death of his coach, Duke Roufus, who died eight months ago at age 55. Rodriguez dropped Hyder Amil with a flush head kick early in their featherweight contest. Amil somehow stayed conscious, but Rodriguez immediately locked in a ninja choke and instead of tapping out, Amil went to sleep.
Andre Fili nearly spoiled Vinicius Oliveira’s featherweight debut with a nasty body shot in the opening round, but Oliveira bit down on his mouthguard, withstood the pain and made it to the second round, where he began wearing down his opponent.
Oliveira eventually overwhelmed Fili along the fence late in Round 2. It was the Brazilian’s first fight up at 145 pounds after going 4-1 at 135 pounds to start his UFC career. He was coming off a February submission loss to Mario Bautista in his first main event. Fili was coming off a split decision loss to Jose Delgado in March.
Beatriz Mesquita and Kevin Borjas were among the standout performers on the preliminary card.
