Amanda Leve

Amanda Leve was born on December 13, 1996, and raised in Northeast Philadelphia, where a fiercely competitive athletic identity took shape from an early age. Sports were woven into the fabric of her upbringing — beginning with softball during her elementary school years, where Leve pitched for her school team and helped lead it to two city championships. Advancing into high school, she broadened her athletic pursuits by adding track and field to her repertoire, specializing in shot put and ultimately breaking her school's records in both the indoor and outdoor disciplines.

Much of Leve's competitive drive traces directly to her father, who instilled in her a relentless pursuit of victory from childhood. In an April 2021 interview for her BJJ Heroes profile, Leve recalled: "I played T-ball at, like, 4 or 5 [years old]. At one point I wanted to stop t-ball because they would always tell us it was a tie game so no one got upset. My dad also helped fuel the competitiveness. He never let me accept 2nd place. There was a softball championship game in elementary school that my team lost and he made me trash the 2nd place trophy in front of the whole team of girls." That philosophy — that second place was unacceptable — would come to define her approach to competition for years to come. Her father and uncle were also avid mixed martial arts fans, a shared passion that ultimately opened the door to the sport that became her calling.

Amanda Leve's introduction to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came at age 11, when her father and uncle enrolled her brother in a BJJ club. After watching one of his classes at Jeff Creasman's Daddis Fight Team, Leve asked to join and took her first class shortly thereafter. Her father wasted no time registering her for a local tournament — and the experience proved to be a turning point. Leve lost her very first match in just 15 seconds, an outcome that left her in tears and ready to walk away. Her father persuaded her to stay for one more match. She won it, and as she later described, she has "been addicted to the feeling ever since."

Building Through a Lineage of Instructors

Leve's path to the black belt unfolded through a rich and varied lineage of coaches, each contributing to a distinct chapter of her development. Jeff Creasman guided her at the outset, followed by Frank Ambrifi at orange belt, Rich Latta at green belt, and Jason Frawley at blue belt. Ricardo Almeida, a nationally recognized figure in the grappling world, oversaw her progression through both purple and brown belt — a pivotal stretch that sharpened the technical foundation underpinning her no-gi game. In April 2021, James Booth of GrindHouse Academy and Jay Regalbuto of Studio 84 awarded Leve her black belt, the culmination of a decade-long journey woven through the Philadelphia grappling scene and shaped by coaches of the highest caliber.

Amanda Leve has built one of the most compelling no-gi competition records to emerge from the Philadelphia region, with performances at the elite level spanning multiple belt divisions and major global promotions. Her ascent through the colored belt ranks was marked by consistent dominance on the IBJJF no-gi circuit.

Colored Belt Dominance

In 2015, competing at purple belt, Leve claimed gold at the IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championship and reached the final of the IBJJF No-Gi World Championship, earning a silver medal. She returned the following year to capture the IBJJF No-Gi World Championship title outright at purple belt in 2016, then repeated as a world-level champion at brown belt in 2017 — a year in which she also added a third-place finish at the same event, underscoring the depth of her engagement with the division. These results established her as one of the most decorated colored belt no-gi competitors of her generation.

Submission Grappling and ADCC Trials

At the submission grappling level, Leve continued to assert herself against the field's best. In 2017, she claimed victory at the Finishers 4 Tournament. In 2019, she won both the Grapplers Quest Pro Submission event and the ADCC World Championship Trials — the latter representing one of the most competitive qualification processes in the sport and a significant benchmark for any serious submission grappler.

Black Belt Achievements

Leve's excellence carried forward into her black belt career without interruption. In 2024, she captured the IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championship title at black belt, confirming that the standard she established across lower belt divisions had translated fully into the sport's highest competitive tier. Competing in the Super-Pesado division (over 79 kg / 175 lbs), Leve represents GrindHouse Academy and Studio 84. Her trajectory — from a tearful first-round loss at age 11 to a decorated black belt champion — stands as one of the more compelling stories in American no-gi grappling.