The coronavirus may have forced them apart for the time being, but the relationship between Bellator and Kyoji Horiguchi is far from over.

Horiguchi (29-3) reached his career apex when he defeated Darrion Caldwell twice to win the Rizin FF and Bellator bantamweight belts and become a simultaneous two-promotion champion in 2019. But a shock defeat to Kai Asakura in a non-title fight was followed by a lengthy spell on the sidelines rehabbing a knee injury, and Horiguchi relinquished both titles.

During that time, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, grounding a significant amount of international travel and preventing Bellator from continuing its ongoing collaboration with Rizin. But with the global rollout of vaccines and the gradual easing of travel restrictions, Bellator president Scott Coker said he’s keen for Bellator to return to Japan when it’s safe to do so. He also said he’d love to get Horiguchi back into the Bellator cage, where he hopes he’ll challenge for the bantamweight title once again.

“We love Horiguchi,” Coker told reporters, including MMA Junkie, during a virtual news conference. “I personally like him. I think he owes us a fight, and he beat our guy twice. So he’s a great fighter.

“I just saw his recent fight in Japan. You know how much we love going to Japan. We still are talking to (Noboyuki) Sakakibara-san about something in the future. Of course, the time right now is COVID, so it’s very difficult for us to travel. It’s very difficult for him to get fighters and staff and all of us over there. So we’re going to just give it a beat.

“But if you ask me, I think Horiguchi will fight in Bellator, representing Rizin, of course. Representing Rizin, Horiguchi will come here and fight our champion, I think, at some point this year.”