Amanda Leve Isn’t Worried About Her Opponent’s Olympic Judo Background

Even against a world-class judo practitioner, Amanda Leve is confident her Brazilian jiu-jitsu will be more than enough to secure the victory.

Leve (1-0, 1-0 PFL) is looking to acquire more experience as she takes on 2016 Olympic judoka Naranjargal Tsendayush at PFL Challenger Series Week 2 on Feb. 3. Leve made her mixed martial arts professional debut under the PFL banner in August 2021 when she forced Miranda Barber to tap due to rear-naked choke in the opening frame of their clash. Since then, Leve polished her skills across several grappling contests, even taking home a decision victory over Gabi Garcia in November 2021. Leve isn’t too worried about her next opponent’s Olympic background as she is sure she’ll manage to implement her game rather than defend her opponent’s.

“I just expect her to be a little bit more judo focused. I was watching some of her Judo film and she seemed to be more of a sleeve thrower, which I don't think will translate very well into like the MMA game. I'm just really confident in my wrestling and my jiu-jitsu, so if she wants to try to throw me the ground is my game anyway. Wrestling-wise, we just practiced on not letting people load me up on their hip, like a judo player would be more apt to do. I was just focusing on staying more low towards the legs. Nothing really too focused on the judo because I wanna implement my game more than worry about her game.”

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:15) The Polar Plunge
(01:32) Preparing for Tsendayush
(02:27) Switching camps
(02:51) Contrasting her opponent’s judo with her BJJ
(04:14) Defeating Barber
(05:46) Competing against Gabi Garcia
(06:47) Taking on male opponents in BJJ contests
(07:42) Defeating Garcia in BJJ
(08:14) Fighting at featherweight
(08:59) Teasing dropping another weight class in the future
(09:44) Outro