Amber Leibrock heads to the PFL women’s featherweight semifinals this Friday, where she’s been paired up with Sambo expert Marina Mokhnatkina.
She does so coming off a knockout loss to lightweight champ Larissa Pacheco last time out — but a viral knockout win in her first fight of the season was enough to land her the chance to move forward.
“The last fight was the way it was, but I think I bounced back pretty quick. It took me a little bit longer than the last one, just because I had to let my eye settle down a little bit, because I had a pretty gnarly black eye,” Leibrock (7-5) told Cageside Press in a recent exclusive interview. “But other than that, everything’s been great. It’s been an amazing camp, we’ve been going hard, we’ve been fixing them holes and just getting ready for the semifinals.”
Leibrock has also been listening to her body, given that enduring three training camps back-to-back-to-back has been a new experience for her. But the intensity stays the same, regardless of the fight, she explained. “I’m always training 100%, just always training to fight the best in the world, be the best I can.”
Looking back on her regular season experience, Leibrock exclaimed that “it was amazing. Even though the last one was the way it was, it’s been an amazing experience. Because at the end of this all, when I’m an old lady, I won’t be like ‘yeah I won this one, I lost this one, blah blah blah blah blah.’ It will be just about the journey, the experience, what it was all about.”
“For me this season was just everything I could dream of, it’s been everything I’ve been working towards, everything I’ve been fighting so hard for. The first one was amazing, the second one kind of sucked, but at the end of the day it was still an amazing experience. Every experience with the PFL has been amazing and I’m extremely blessed and grateful and thankful to be a part of it.”
MMA is a roller coaster at the best of times, and that has certainly proven true for Amber Leibrock this year. It’s as a result of those ups and downs that Leibrock refuses to revel in her triumphs too long.
“I really don’t live anywhere too long, wins or losses. And I think that’s the mentality to have. Of course be proud and celebrate yourself, but you don’t want to live in that high too long, because we know how low it can get.” Leibrock, who has battled depression and mental health struggles, added “it’s very important to keep it kind of level. Because if you get too high and you crash too low, you can end up in some really dark places in your mind and in your soul. So for me I try not to live anywhere too long, but it’s all been just a roller coaster, but a great one and I’m glad to be on it.”
The 35-year old has been training with Adam Piccolotti among others ahead of her fight with Mokhnatkina. And many of her training partners are actually guys. After all, 145lb female fighters aren’t the easiest to come by.
“Yeah. I mean there’s a ton of us out there but we’re kind of spread across the country, or across the world. There’s a lot of foreigners who are 145, kind of bigger chicks. Here in the states it is hard to find chicks to train with, and you’ve got to be careful because there’s a potential that one day you’re going to fight them, because the division is so small,” she noted.
As for Mokhnatkina, who holds multiple gold medals in Sambo, Leibrock believes she knows what to expect.
“That. I’m expecting her to force the grapple, I’m excepting her to start pretty quickly, I’m expecting her to go shoot and try to take me down and do her thing that she continues to do. That’s pretty much it,” suggested Leibrock. “From my last couple fights, it’s not that I’m a slow starter, but I think I’ve just been trying to feel things out too much, because I’m definitely not a slow starter, but I think she’s going to try to capitalize on that by rushing a little bit and coming at me harder and really trying to force us to grapple.”
What people don’t understand, including her opponent, is that “I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu a lot longer than I’ve been striking,” added Leibrock. “I started grappling, I was doing tournaments all the way up until I got my purple belt and I decided to just focus on MMA. And there’s not one grappling tournament I went into that I didn’t walk out without a silver or gold medal. So I think that this is a good opportunity for me to show some stuff as well. You think you can just out-grapple me, I promise you you can’t. It’s great, it’s going to be a good fight.”
Watch our full interview with PFL 8’s Amber Leibrock above. The event takes place this Friday, August 18, 2023 in New York, NY.
