From a young age, Natan Levy was a fighter — not in the schoolyard or locker room, but through his love of martial arts. At age 15, Levy began practicing karate and kung fu, achieving his black belt at age 18 while training in Japan.
Levy took that passion to the mat, teaching the next generation of Israeli fighters to build strength and confidence through martial arts. To relax, he would watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship, staying up well into the night to catch the matches live from his hometown in Herzliya.
Those matches, coupled with the knowledge that his viable competition days were slowly waning, pushed Levy, at 21, to go pro.
“I said [to myself], ‘Either I can stay a martial arts teacher now until I’m old, that I can always do, but I only have a short window if I want to do [mixed martial arts] and compete. I gotta be young, I gotta be strong to do it, and I will be much better of a teacher, when I do get back to it, from my experience as a fighter,’” Levy recalled during a recent interview on Jewish Insider’s podcast. So he packed up and headed to Las Vegas in pursuit of that dream.
Levy, now 31, went undefeated as an amateur fighter before going pro in 2018. In 2021, he joined the UFC, becoming the only Israeli in the league at the time. Today, his pro MMA record is 8-1-0 and he’s ranked the 77th best lightweight MMA fighter.
In December, Levy called out rapper Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — in response to antisemitic comments the artist made on radio host Alex Jones’ podcast, saying, “If you got a problem with me or my people, come see me, bro.”
During his conversation with co-hosts Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein, Levy discussed his journey to the UFC, what it’s like being a professional MMA fighter and his thoughts on Joe Rogan’s recent comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Below are excerpts from the conversation.
A day in the life of Natan Levy: “It’s a mix of martial…