Bellator MMA took to a grand stage on Saturday with plans to crown an inaugural men’s flyweight champion, but the bout between Kyoji Horiguchi and Makoto Shinryu was waved off after just 25 seconds as a no contest after an accidental eye poke, leaving the title vacant in the most anticlimactic way.
The title bout, which was the co-main event of the Bellator portion of the company’s co-promotion with the Japanese company the Rizin Fighting Federation, took place at 36,000-seat Saitama Super Arena outside of Tokyo and featured two of Japan’s biggest star fighters.
But the fight ended early after fingers on the left hand of Horiguchi (31-5, 1 NC), a 32-year-old former bantamweight champion in Bellator and two-time champ in Rizin, poked Makoto (16-1-1, 1 NC) in his right eye. A doctor was brought into the cage to check on the 23-year-old, who came into the night on a 10-fight winning streak. The delay lasted five minutes before referee Jason Herzog waved off the bout.
Bellator did not immediately announce whether Horiguchi and Makoto will be booked again for a title fight, or when such a bout would take place.
It was Horiguchi’s second attempt at 125-pound gold. In 2015 in the UFC, he unsuccessfully challenged then-champ Demetrious Johnson for the belt.
Horiguchi, who trains at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, also was trying to become the fourth Bellator fighter to win titles in multiple divisions, joining Joe Warren (featherweight, bantamweight), Ryan Bader (heavyweight, light heavyweight) and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (lightweight, featherweight).
In the main event, Freire, the former Bellator lightweight champ, improved to 25-11 by defeating Rizin lightweight titlist Roberto de Souza (15-3) by third-round TKO in a quarterfinal of the Bellator Lightweight World Grand Prix. De Souza was a late replacement for ex-Bellator featherweight champ AJ McKee, who dropped out of the bout and tournament during fight week because of an unspecified medical issue.
The fight ended 49 seconds into Round 3, after Freire had controlled the action the whole way. He appeared to be close to a finish late in Round 1, but de Souza made it to the bell.