Amanda Leve shocked the grappling community over the weekend.
The grappler and PFL women’s lightweight pulled off a big upset over jiu-jitsu black belt and IBJJF Hall of Famer Gabi Garcia at Saturday’s 2021 FloGrappling WNO Championship in Austin, Texas.
Leve (1-0) outpointed the much larger Garcia (6-0) – who has weighed in the past as heavy as 230 pounds for her MMA fights – in the first-round of the tournament, causing one of the biggest upsets of the year in the grappling world.
At multiple times, Leve came close to submitting Garcia with her rear-naked choke attempts from back mount but was unable to get the tap. Regardless, Leve did enough to dominate the action and defeat Garcia in a unanimous decision. Leve went on to lose in the semifinal to Rafaela Ribeiro Guedes, who went on to win the tournament.
Leve has only competed once in her professional MMA career. She debuted at the 2021 PFL: Playoffs 2 on Aug. 19 in Hollywood, Fla. Leve defeated Miranda Barber via first-round rear-naked choke.
Meanwhile, Garcia last competed in MMA back in December 2018 when she defeated Barbara Nepomuceno via submission at Rizin FF 14. Garcia is unbeaten in her MMA career.
