5 Things You Might Not Know About Amber Leibrock

The Professional Fighters League could not have formulated a sterner test for Amber Leibrock.

The 35-year-old Hayward, California, native will attempt to nail down a playoff spot in the women’s lightweight division when she takes on defending champion Larissa Pacheco in the PFL 5 co-feature on Friday at Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta. Leibrock has pieced together a career-best four-fight winning streak but steps into the cage as a significant underdog to the heavy-handed Brazilian. She last competed at PFL 2, where she felled Martina Jindrova and with a head kick and follow-up punches a little more than two minutes into the first round of their April 7 pairing.

As Leibrock moves ever closer to her forthcoming battle with Pacheco at 155 pounds, here are five things you might not know about her:

1. She avoided the pitfalls sometimes associated with a later start.

Leibrock made her professional mixed martial arts debut at the age of 27 on July 9, 2015, when she buried Marina Shafir with punches just 37 seconds into their encounter under the Invicta Fighting Championships banner. The 35-year-old Shafir, who has not fought since, now works as a developmental talent in All Elite Wrestling.

2. Regional gold bolstered her resume.

“Touch ’em Up” captured the Gladiator Challenge women’s featherweight championship in December 2021, as she needed just 20 to punch out Devon Holmes at GC “Underground 3.” Leibrock returned to Invicta less than eight months later, then signed with the Professional Fighters League.

3. Adversity did nothing to dissuade her.

Leibrock struggled through a three-fight losing streak between Sept. 29, 2018 and Sept. 7, 2019, suffering consecutive losses to Arlene Blencowe, Amanda Bell and Jessica Borga. However, she has not tasted defeat since, a perfect 4-0 record having hastened her rise through the ranks.

4. She does not employ judges often.

Only one of Leibrock’s 11 career bouts has reached the scorecards. She took a three-round unanimous decision from Janay Harding when they met under the Bellator MMA flag at Bellator 199. Leibrock’s 10 other outings—six wins and four losses—have resulted in finishes, six of them inside one round.

5. She views the sport through multiple lenses.

Leibrock operates out of the Kirian Fitzgibbons-fronted Combat Sports Academy outfit in Dublin, California, some 35 miles to the east of San Francisco. Former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder Henry Cejudo threw out his anchor at the gym in the past. Leibrock serves as its program director for Kids MMA.