Hamaguchi returns from retinal detachment to face Onigiri-kun at DEEP on Oct. 30

Hamaguchi's return comes after an injury far worse than the one the promotion announced. DEEP said only that he had withdrawn from his September Osaka fight with Ryosuke Honda because of a training injury. According to Hamaguchi, speaking to MMAPLANET, it was a retinal detachment that doctors said might threaten his career.

He says the problem showed up about a week after the Honda fight was made. He had gone back to Osaka and avoided contact training. On the morning he returned to Nagoya, his vision had shrunk to about half. He went to hospital on arrival and had surgery straight away. Doctors were uncertain about a return to competition, he said, but he recovered faster than expected and was cleared after about a month and a half.

The layoff interrupts a run that looked like a breakthrough. Hamaguchi stopped Yuma Matsui in March at DEEP Osaka and Kato Sunada in May on the opening fights of RIZIN Kobe. MMAPLANET saw a clear change in his approach in both wins. He credits the move to Nagoya, where he trains under Kanten Kasugai, for helping him get his skills working together in fights. He says he had been splitting time between Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket and Japan before that.

The Oct. 30 fight is a 58 kg contract bout over three five-minute rounds at the Ebisu Garden Room. The series is aimed at younger and less experienced fighters, which makes his place in the main event unusual. Hamaguchi says he simply wanted to fight, had kept training and had kept his weight in check, and accepted at short notice when the card came up.

He wants four fights this year and is looking at New Year's Eve. He says he won't trash talk: "I'm a fighter, so [I'll show it] in the fight" (translated). His focus is on finishing Onigiri-kun, as he did against Matsui and Sunada. How he looks on his first fight since surgery will decide whether the year-end plan is realistic.