Si Yoon Park-Seika Izawa Atomweight Title Fight to Headline Deep Jewels 44

Two of the top women in MMA’s lighter divisions are set to meet in a champ vs. champ superfight with pound-for-pound implications.

Deep Jewels atomweight champ Si Yoon Park (6-3) will defend her title against her strawweight counterpart, Seika Izawa (12-0), at Deep Jewels 44 on March 24 in Tokyo. The promotion made the announcement on Jan. 23, just days after “Sankaru” added the Black Combat atomweight title to her hardware collection by defeating Moeri Suda at Black Combat 10.

In the challenger, Park will face a fellow multi-divisional champion, as Izawa owns the Rizin Fighting Federation super atomweight (108 lbs.) belt in addition to her Jewels title. A win by Izawa would make her a simultaneous three-division champion, a feat nearly unprecedented in top-level MMA.

On the other hand, a successful defense by Park would reaffirm her status as one of the world’s top atomweights and continue her shocking rise over the last year. Park, who went 1-3 in her first four professional bouts from 2017 to 2019, returned last March from a three-year layoff and has since won five straight fights, three via stoppage, to capture her Jewels and Black Combat titles.

Izawa is no stranger to rapid career ascent herself. In just her third career fight, the then 23-year-old won the Jewels strawweight title by defeating Miki Motono. Seven months later, she pounded out Rizin super atomweight champ and longtime pound-for-pound stalwart Ayaka Hamasaki in a non-title fight, then repeated the feat at Rizin 35 in April of 2022 to take the belt.

Deep Jewels 44 takes place on March 24 at New Pier Hall in Tokyo, Japan, with 10 women’s bouts currently confirmed. In addition to the Park vs. Izawa main event, the main card is stacked with three super atomweight bouts: Road FC champion Jeong Eun Park (9-7-1) takes on Namiko Kawabata (4-3) in the co-main event, with Yuko Kiryu (13-10) vs. Kate Oyama (4-6) and Mizuki Furuse (11-11) and Saki Kitamura (1-2) ahead of them.