Rin Nakai is a Bantamweight fighter with a Judo background. She began training Judo at the age of 3 and in middle school she was ranked #5 and in high school she was ranked #3 in all of Japan. She has fought in The UFC, RIZIN, Pancrase, DEEP, Smackgirl, Valkyrie, and Sengoku. She holds notable victories over Tomomi Sunaba, Tara LaRosa, Kyoko Kimura, and Kanako Murata

In Submission Grappling Nakai is 2-2 with all of her matches coming during the 2006 Smackgirl Middleweight Grappling Queen Tournament. She won in the first round by armbar and the second round by points. She lost on points to Takayo Hashi in the semifinals and finished the tournament by losing on a referee decision in the 3rd place match. 

Nakai would make her professional MMA debut against Asuka Ito at Pancrase 167 back in 2006. The Judo standout would win as Asuka would suffer an Injury forcing a stop to the bout in the first round.

Nakai would then go on to fight for Smackgirl where she would win 3 straight before returning to Pancrase to fight Tomomi Sunaba. It would take Nakai less than two minutes to put Sunaba away, improving her record to 5-0. Nakai would then go to Valkyrie where she would fight Mizuho Sato in her debut. She would submit Sato via double wrist lock in the third round. Following her win over Sato, Nakai would beat Megumi Yabushita via unanimous decision.

She would then go on to enter the Valkyrie Openweight Tournament. She would defeat Mayumi Aoki via first round armbar before rematching Mizuho Sato who she would defeat via doctor stoppage this time to win the tournament and become Valkyrie's first Openweight Champion. 

Following her tournament win she would pull off an Americana against Mika Harigai in the first round, before being paired up with Danielle West, the pair would go the distance in a fight that would end up a draw. Following her draw with West, Nakai would come back with another win, this time over Japanese pro wrestler, Kyoko Kimura. 

On September first 2012, Rin would enter the Bantamweight Queen of Pancrase tournament, her first bout would be a rematch with Mayum Aoki, this time Nakai would put her away with punches in the second round to advance to the finals of the tournament. Her opponent in the finals would be none other than Danielle West. In the pairs second meeting Nakai would emerge victorious to be crowned as the Queen of Pancrase. She would then pick up wins against Brenda Gonzales, Tara LaRosa and Sarah D'Alelio before finally getting the call up to the UFC.

Rin Nakai would make her UFC Debut against future champion Miesha Tate at UFC Fight Night 52: Hunt vs. Nelson on September 20th, 2014; however Nakai was unable to deal with the five inch height and six inch reach advantage for Miesha, who would frustrate Nakai throughout the three round bout to win a lopsided unanimous decision and handing the Japanese standout her first professional loss. 

Following her loss to Tate, Nakai would fight Leslie Smith in her next bout at UFC Fight Night 85: Hunt VS Mir, this time her opponent would have a whopping eight inch height and five inch reach advantage. Once again Nakai would struggle to get going against Smith and would drop another decision, following her second straight loss in the UFC, Nakai would be cut from the roster and return to Japan where she would continue to compete. Between 2016 and 2019, Nakai would go on a 6 fight finishing streak, notably stopping future UFC strawweight contender Kanako Murata via rear naked choke in the third round. Nakai would not compete in 2020 but In July 2021 she expressed her desire to resign with the UFC. She would then accept a custom rules bout with the kickboxer, Mariya Suzuki at HEAT 49, she would finish Suzuki with ground and pound. This would mark her first fight in almost two years. 

Nakai has not announced what she plans to do next but It seems like the 34 year old Judo standout still has her eyes set on that UFC title. Whether or not she returns to the UFC remains to be seen however.