Seo Hee Ham, ROAD FC Atomweight Champ, Will Appear at RIZIN 17

Seo Hee Ham
Seo Hee Ham (left), ROAD FC XX Credit: ROAD FC

ROAD FC’s women’s atomweight champ Seo Hee Ham is among the most recent additions to the upcoming RIZIN 17 card.

RIZIN FF has announced a trio of fights for July’s RIZIN 17 card. Among them, ROAD FC atomweight champ Seo Hee Ham will take on Japan’s own Tomo Maesawa. The bout once again sees RIZIN sharing talent with a competing organization, though it’s unclear if any RIZIN fighters might eventually go back the other way.

Also booked for RIZIN 17 is BJJ star Roberto Satoshi, who is set to face Mizuto Hirota. Jake Heun, meanwhile, has been pitted up against Vitaly Shemetov.

It’s the reigning ROAD FC champ Ham (20-8) who is likely to turn heads however. The South Korean star has won all three of her fights since leaving the UFC, where she competed at strawweight. Returning to her natural weight class of atomweight, the former DEEP Jewels champion is 3-0, with a win over current Invicta FC champ Jinh Yu Frey.

Tomo Maesawa (12-9) has competed mainly for DEEP Jewels throughout her career. She’ll enter the fight off a loss, and was most recently competing in the grappling realm. A former DEEP title holder herself, she’ll be making her RIZIN debut.

Satoshi (8-0) made his first appearance back in August, earning a win against Satoru Kitaoka, a tenured veteran of mixed martial arts. He’ll get another solid test against Hirota (18-10-2), who has had two runs in the UFC to date.

Finally, Jake Heun (13-9) will look to build off his win over Roque Martinez and make it two in a row against Shemetov (23-9, 1NC). ‘The Dancing Russian’ has not lost a fight since 2010, and has won 10 straight (with an eleventh fight, his most recent, ending in a no contest). However, he has not competed since 2017.

RIZIN 17 takes place July 28 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, just a short train ride outside Tokyo.