Overview
- Manel Kape stopped Kyoji Horiguchi by third-round TKO at UFC Vegas 119 at the Meta APEX on Saturday, June 20, 2026, avenging their December 2017 loss and finishing the fight at 2:42 of round three.
- Kape’s comeback knockout extended his streak of finishes and pushed him into immediate title discussion, with outlets and fighters saying he should be next in line for the UFC flyweight belt.
- The card produced multiple high-impact finishes, including Navajo Stirling’s second-round TKO of Ion Cutelaba and Murtazali Magomedov’s rare twister submission, and the promotion awarded performance bonuses for standout stoppages.
- Statistically, Kape now owns an extended knockout run at 125 pounds and passed the flyweight knockout mark cited in coverage, a factor reporters and peers cite when comparing him to champion Joshua Van.
- Kape’s win completes a personal arc from his 2017 RIZIN submission loss to Horiguchi to a top-contender spot in the UFC, and the promotion must now balance his title push with the scheduled Van–Pantoja rematch later this year.