UFC 166 results and photos: Kyoji Horiguchi pounds out Dustin Pague

HOUSTON – Kyoji Horiguchi was in a world of trouble in the first round of his UFC debut; he just had to stay calm and survive.

And that’s just what he did with a comeback in the second round to stop Dustin Pague with a TKO at the 3:51 mark of the frame.

The bantamweight bout opened up the preliminary card of today’s UFC 166 event at Toyota Center in Houston. It streamed on Facebook ahead of additional prelims on FOX Sports 1 and the pay-per-view main card.

Horiguchi kicked to the inside leg early and bounced around the outside with his hands down. He missed with a right, but Pague moved in quickly and went after an arm-triangle choke. He then took Horiguchi’s back and went after a rear-naked choke. Horiguchi tried to stand up out of the choke, but Pague kept his back – exerting a lot of effort with his legs and arms to hold the position.

Horiguchi kept working on defense and managed to survive. He tried to buck Pague off from the body triangle, and after a a long couple of minutes, Pague was finally off and Horiguchi tried to turn the tables. Pague landed a solid knee to the body with 30 seconds left, then landed a big slam in a round that was nearly all him.

But out of the gate in the second, Horiguchi landed a left hand, and seconds later, a big one right after that that put Pague on the canvas. Horiguchi went to work on his feet, landing more punches while Pague covered up in big trouble. Herb Dean looked in and let Pague recover, and he did. Pague tried to keep Horiguchi on the canvas, but the Japanese fighter got back to his feet and tripped the fight back to the canvas.

There, he postured up and landed some big punches while Pague tried to hold on. But Horiguchi had everything left in the gas tank, and Pague had nothing – perhaps after the lengthy choke attempt and body triangle in the first. Finally, Dean stepped in to shut things down.

“This is just the starting point in my career,” Horiguchi said. “I am looking to be champion. I am very happy to win the fight, but I still have a lot to learn and this fight was a great lesson for me.”

Horiguchi (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) ran his winning streak to six straight. Pague (11-9 MMA, 1-5 UFC) lost his fourth straight fight and fifth in six efforts, and now likely finds himself on the chopping block.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 166 results include:

• Kyoji Horiguchi def. Dustin Pague via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:51

For complete coverage of UFC 166, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Houston.