A non-title women’s super atomweight bout between Rizin champion Seika Izawa and Miyuu Yamamoto has been added to Rizin Fighting Federation 45, which takes place on December 31st in Saitama, Japan. The fight, originally planned to take place in May, was officially announced today.

Yamamoto was forced to withdraw from the initial matchup with Izawa after suffering a knee injury that kept her out of action for all of 2023. Izawa went on to earn first-round submission victories in bouts for Deep Jewels and Rizin, and she will now face Yamamoto in Yamamoto’s retirement fight.

Izawa (11-0-0) was quickly rebooked to fight in May after Yamamoto’s injury and did so at Deep Jewels 41, where she quickly finished Suwanan “Amp The Rocket” Boonsorn with a triangle choke in the opening round. She then successfully retained her Rizin FF Women’s Super Atomweight Championship by submitting Claire Lopez in 64 seconds at Super Rizin 2 in July. While she is likely to be matched up against new Deep Jewels Interim Strawweight Champion Arisa Matsuda in a Deep Jewels title unifier next year, Izawa will first compete in a rebooked fight with Yamamoto under the Rizin FF banner.

Yamamoto (6-7-0) has been a staple of Rizin events dating back to Rizin FF 2 in September 2016. The former standout wrestler struggled in her first four MMA bouts, winning just one of them, before bouncing back with an impressive four-fight winning streak that culminated with an upset of former Rizin grand prix champion Kanna Asakura. Her winning streak came to an end at the hands of Seo Hee Ham, but Yamamoto got back into title contention and challenged then-champ Ayaka Hamasaki at Rizin FF 26. Despite strong showings in two fights since then, Yamamoto is winless since the end of 2019 and she plans to retire from competition following her fight with Izawa.

Rizin Fighting Federation 45 takes place on December 31st at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.