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When Kyoji Horiguchi fought out his contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the end of 2016, he left under peculiar circumstances. Zuffa had just sold the organization to Endeavor, and a subsequent bloodletting of talent took place. Horiguchi was part of a wave of top-tier fighters -- it included Ryan Bader, Rory MacDonald, Lorenz Larkin and Nikita Krylov -- who left the UFC, not because they were cut but because they couldn’t come to terms with the promotion.