Seika Izawa is the greatest female fighter in Japanese MMA history, climbing to a 17-0 record with championships won in DEEP and RIZIN, and has no plans of slowing down. In fact, her goal is to chase all-time greatness globally.<\/p>\n
Izawa will return to the RIZIN ring on the traditional New Years\u2019 Eve show to face popular Japanese fighter Rena Kubota, looking for another successful defense of her atomweight belt. She doesn\u2019t expect another victory, although over a name that has competed under the Bellator banner before, to boost her to the top of pound-for-pound rankings and GOAT lists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely need to put my name out there in the international market,\u201d Izawa told MMA Fighting through an interpreter. \u201cI need to fight at the international level, for sure. But the weight classes prevent me. I think the weight class is preventing me from doing so. It\u2019s not a very popular division as of now. So I need to continue to do what I can to be able to have people talk about myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my point of view, I do believe that the lighter weight classes, as far as for women\u2019s MMA, are more interesting and more entertaining. It shows the dynamics and it shows what women can really do in the lighter weight classes. I think there\u2019s a lot more to show, a lot more that people can see from the smaller weight class. I really hope that the popularity of my division spreads internationally, and we get more contestants so we get to show the appeal of women\u2019s MMA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Izawa started her MMA career as a strawweight, winning the DEEP title before dropping down to 108 pounds to kick off her very successful RIZIN run. Victorious in 11 straight bouts with seven finishes to her credit in the company, she has a hard time seeing a future where she goes back to 115 pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of right now, I just can\u2019t put on weight so it\u2019s hard for me to commit to fighting at a heavier weight class,\u201d Izawa said. \u201cSo as of right now, I think I\u2019m going to stay at atomweight. However, it depends on how things go. If I start to struggle with finding fights and actually making a living at this weight class, I think I\u2019m going to be forced to step up. But it\u2019s all going to depend on how things go. But as of right now, I feel like I\u2019m going to be fighting at atomweight.<\/p>\n
Her dream match currently competes at strawweight, though, and that weight discrepancy could stand on the way of making it happen: Seo Hee Ham. The South Korean veteran won 25 of 34 professional bouts and recently revealed she\u2019s a free agent, parting ways with ONE Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do compete in a sport where weight classes do exist, so for me, I can\u2019t really wrap my head around that fact,\u201d Izawa said. \u201cIf I were to say who do I want to fight, my dream match is \u2014 Soo He Ham would be somebody I\u2019d be definitely motivated in fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Izawa said that naming the greatest woman to ever compete in MMA is \u201ca hard one\u201d, but called PFL featherweight champion Cris Cyborg \u201cdefinitely very, very, very tough.\u201d The former UFC, Strikeforce, Invicta and Bellator champion was not the one that drove her to compete in the sport, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest inspiration was Kanna Asakura,\u201d Izawa said. \u201cWe\u2019re the same age, and I\u2019ve known her from our wrestling days. From my point of view, somebody my same age who I\u2019ve wrestled with, who I knew. She was fighting in this organization called RIZIN and she was very successful and very popular. She\u2019s definitely the reason why I transitioned to MMA and wanted to be an MMA fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The RIZIN queen fought Asakura in 2024, winning a unanimous decision. However, she doesn\u2019t thought much of that bout as a legacy result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of skill set as a fighter, I believe that I was a much more significant fighter, so beating her didn\u2019t really mean much to me,\u201d Izawa said. \u201cBut at the time, I faced Miyuu Yamamoto and Kanna Asakura back to back and for both retirement fights, so for me it kind of showed that times are changing and things are moving. That\u2019s kind of how I felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beating big-name veterans are important, Izawa agrees, but also wants to pile up victories against up-and-comers. As Izawa grows her legacy as a champion, and inspires others to follow that path inside MMA rings and cages, she hopes to crush their dreams in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would want to be the biggest obstacle that they\u2019re going to face if they continue to proceed in their profession,\u201d Izawa said of the next generation of the sport. \u201cI want to be this dominant champion who they want to surpass, but it\u2019s not gonna be easy. I would like to be that kind of dominant champion for them. My goal is definitely to put my name on the books of MMA. Like I said, I want to be that obstacle, undefeated, dominant champion as long as I can. For the next 10, 15 years, I would like to continue to be that obstacle for all the future contestants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Izawa was aiming to face Kubota in May, when RIZIN: Otoko Matsuri drew 42,706 fans to the Tokyo Dome in Japan, but lamented that Kubota wasn\u2019t healthy to compete at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel that a lot of the people are excited about this and the anticipation is definitely different,\u201d Izawa said of finally facing Kubota. \u201cI guess in terms of anticipation and people talking about this fight, I think this is definitely one of the biggest ones in the past few years, several years.\u201d<\/p>\n
They will finally collide to close out 2025, and Izawa doesn\u2019t foresee an evenly matched contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that she\u2019s a striker, and I am more of a grappler who can also strike,\u201d Izawa said. \u201cIn terms of total skillset, I have more weapons in my arsenal, for sure. Obviously the fight starts on our feet so we have to strike and we\u2019re gonna have to exchange. In a perfect world, I want to dominate her on my feet as well. I want to prove a point and dominate her where she\u2019s good at and then take her down and submit her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seika Izawa is the greatest female fighter in Japanese MMA history, climbing to a 17-0 record with championships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,1859,160502,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-376234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-rizin","14":"tag-rizin-results","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}