April has been doing judo since she was four years old. She is a senior national champion, a four-time collegiate national champion, and a two-time world university and junior world team member.
By day, she works as a chiropractor specializing in prenatal and pediatric care. But in Rokas Leo’s Ultimate Self-Defense Championship (USDC), she found herself facing a series of surprise attacks from an untrained man outweighing her by roughly 100 lbs.
The attacker tipped the scales at 242 lbs (110 kg). Despite the size disadvantage, April entered the challenge with a competitive mindset, telling Rokas before her first round that it felt “like before that first match.”
Her judo background gave her natural instincts for throws and takedowns, but the unstructured nature of the scenarios quickly exposed the limits of sport-based training. In the opening round, she went straight for a throw, but it did not go her way.
Judge Jimmy gave her a four, citing bad hits to her face, while Judge Amber awarded a six, noting concern over “those dangling legs on the way over.”
What stood out was April’s ability to adapt on the fly. In the second round, she landed hammer fists with enough power to draw real praise, despite it being outside anything she had trained. “I didn’t plan on that or train it, so that was surprising, but it worked,” she said.
Her posture and neck strength, built through years of judo drills, proved useful in a hair-grab scenario. She controlled her attacker’s head and neutralized his ability to generate power. Jimmy gave her nine points, saying, “She’s doing very well, actually not because of judo, but because she is kind of bada*s.”
The ground pin scenario was the most difficult. Pinned beneath a 242 lb (110 kg) man, April tried hard but could not escape.
Jimmy gave her four points while acknowledging, “She’s a bad*ss. She’s not giving up.” Amber settled on a six, noting that strong kicks from the bottom still leave you at a disadvantage when a significantly larger person is controlling the position.
April closed the final round with an armbar that impressed the room.
“She threw him and fell back to an armbar, which is pretty impressive,” said Amber, awarding an eight. Jimmy was less generous with three points, arguing the exchange ran far too long before she gained control.
She finished the challenge with 35 total points, just two behind MMA fig hter Lindsay, with two more challenges still remaining. The results made clear that a decorated grappling background, combined with a willingness to improvise under pressure, can carry an athlete a long way, even when giving up a significant weight advantage.
