Seika Izawa gave birth in September. On December 31, she’s scheduled to fight again.
RIZIN confirmed that Izawa will compete on its New Year’s Eve card in Nagoya, MiddleEasy reported, though the promotion hasn’t named her opponent yet and says that announcement will come later. That leaves a window of roughly three months between delivering a child and walking out on the biggest night of the Japanese fight calendar. The turnaround is fast, and nobody outside her camp knows yet what her preparation has looked like.
Where She Stands
Izawa isn’t returning to chase a spot in the conversation. She already sits at the top of it. In the November 2026 Combat Press Women’s MMA Rankings, compiled from the staff’s individual ballots, she holds the No. 1 position at atomweight, the under-50.1-kilogram class. Elisandra Ferreira is No. 2, followed by Natasha Kuziutina at No. 3 and Si Woo Park at No. 4.
The rest of the top 10 has a strong Japanese presence. Saori Oshima is fifth, Moeri Suda sixth, Ayaka Hamasaki seventh and Rena Kubota eighth. Andressa Romero and Giuliany Perea round out the list at Nos. 9 and 10.
The division has been quiet. Combat Press noted that no top-10 atomweight fought in October, so Izawa’s ranking held steady through a stretch when she wasn’t competing. The only ranked atomweight with a November booking is Suda, who faces So Yul Kim. A result there could reshape the middle of the rankings before Izawa ever steps in the ring.
What’s Next
The obvious open question is the opponent. RIZIN has the date, the city and its headliner-caliber name locked in, but not the person across from her. Whoever gets the call will be facing the consensus best fighter in the weight class, on New Year’s Eve, against someone whose recent months were spent on something other than fight prep.
That creates an awkward matchmaking problem. A ranked contender gives the bout real stakes, and it also asks a lot of a fighter who just had a baby. A softer opponent protects her return and invites the complaint that the No. 1 atomweight is being handed a tune-up on the year’s biggest card.
My take: I’d rather see the promotion and Izawa’s team make that call honestly than make it loudly. Coming back in December after a September birth is her decision, and she has clearly made it. The interesting part now is who RIZIN calls, and that should tell us how ready they think she is. If the name that comes back is someone from that Combat Press top 10, believe that her camp thinks she’s ready to fight like the woman ranked first. The card goes off December 31 in Nagoya.
