Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Natan Levy had a blunt message for fellow Jews around the world during a recent interview.
By United with Israel Staff
“People don’t attack people who look confident,” Natan Levy told the UK’s Jewish Chronicle (JC) in an interview last week.
As the only Israeli in the elite mixed marital arts Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) league, Levy knows a thing or two about toughness.
“If you learn martial arts, no one bullies you,” Levy continued, urging Jews around the world to learn self-defense in his comments to JC.
Levy also lamented the plight of Jews in his country of birth, France, which the young fighter left when he was only a few months old. In Europe, Levy’s cousins were assaulted and robbed for being Jewish. Levy said he responded by finding bullies in Paris and “striking back.”
The UFC added Levy to its roster in 2020, five years after the Israeli started training in mixed martial arts.
According to Levy, one of his goals when he enters the cage to fight is “show[ing] that Jews are brave, that we can fight and take care of ourselves.”
“I don’t officially represent Israel and the Jewish people,” he clarified, adding, “I feel I do in the way I behave and present myself.”
To that end, Levy waved an Israeli flag in the cage when he won his first match in April, brushing off the “free Palestine” comments he receives from detractors.
According to Levy, “Every Jew in the world should learn the art of self-defense. … Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do.”