Lofty expectations are nothing new to Kyoji Horiguchi.
As the protege of Japanese MMA superstar Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, the 24-year-old flyweight hit the UFC with plenty of momentum when he made his official promotional debut in October 2013. After tearing his way through multiple organizations overseas, The Supernova finally hit American soil at UFC 166 and needed fewer than two rounds of work to cement a successful debut inside the Octagon. The former Shooto bantamweight champion salted Dustin Pague via TKO in the second frame and marked his arrival in impressive fashion.
While the overall lack of depth in the flyweight ranks put Horiguchi on the championship radar from the jump, he would go on to pick up three more victories before getting tapped for title contention.