Alexandre Pantoja: Kyoji Horiguchi fight is 'a present' after UFC 323

Alexandre Pantoja is willing to put friendship aside for a UFC title fight against Kyoji Horiguchi.

Horiguchi (35-5 MMA, 8-1 UFC) made his octagon return after more than eight years Saturday with a thrilling second-round submission of Tagir Ulanbekov at UFC Fight Night 265 in Qatar.

After the win, Horiguchi grabbed the microphone and called out Pantoja, who is a friend and regular training partner at American Top Team. The pair have been open about being willing to fight each other for UFC gold in the past, but now it is more real than ever.

Pantoja (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) has a title defense scheduled against Joshua Van (15-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) at UFC 323 on Dec. 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2/ESPN+/Disney+/FX), but if he wins that one, a bout agreement for Horiguchi might come across his desk.

Pantoja said if that happens, he will sign it with pleasure.

"I'm so happy for Kyoji," Pantoja told MMA Junkie on Monday. "Tagir is a very good fighter and Kyoji made a clinic. He looked perfect. This made me very happy because Kyoji is one of my hard training partners in the gym. Me and my family are very grateful to have Kyoji in my life. He brought my level up. I know 100 percent that because I have Kyoji as my teammate, is why I conquered this belt in UFC. I know 100 percent about that. Kyoji was the RIZIN champ, the Bellator champ and he just missed the UFC. It's something he wants. I talked with him about that. I think it's very special if he can do that. He would be the only guy to achieve these belts in RIZIN, Bellator and UFC, the No. 1.

"I feel very honored, very grateful and it's going to be very special for me if I can win against Joshua Van and defend against Kyoji. It's going to be a present for me. It represents a lot to fight with someone very important in my life. But I don't want to think about that right now because I have Joshua Van, a very good fighter. But I know a fight with Kyoji is going to be very hard for me to put in my mind, to hurt my friend. If this happens with all the process about camps and everything: We can feel better with that. I feel so Kyoji is happy to the UFC to make a performance like he did. I'm very glad he made this callout. Maybe the only guy I can make trash talk with is Kyoji Horiguchi."

There have been several high-profile instances throughout UFC history where teammates have not been willing to fight, much to the ire of UFC CEO Dana White.

There were times where teammates fought, such as under the PFL banner when ATT's Raush Manfio fought Natan Schulte, and it turned into a disaster situation.

Pantoja is quite certain that couldn't be the case with Horiguchi, but is not overanalyzing that element of the situation, especially with much more relevant business less than two weeks away.

"I have so much respect for Kyoji," Pantoja said. "He's helped me with a lot of things. He finished with a rear-naked choke. This is my signature move. … I think we can train together one week before the fight and it would be amazing. But I have a huge fight and I can't talk more about that with Joshua Van. I have a huge respect for my sport. When you step in the octagon it's 50/50. It doesn't matter what happened in the past or if you have 24 years or 35. When you step inside the octagon, everything is different."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Alexandre Pantoja: Kyoji Horiguchi fight is 'a present' after UFC 323