The Kyushu Basho wrapped up this past Sunday putting the excitement of 2025 to bed officially. We saw our two Yokozuna battle for supremacy and a third competitor that ended up besting them both to take the tournament. That’s why we have our good friend, Tim Bissell of Sumo Stomp joining us to provide all the analysis and big storylines from the 15-day event. Tim takes us through all the best moments of the tournament, including critiques of the leaders’ performances, how the other wrestlers did, and we even got him to tell us the matches he’s most thankful for over the course of the year.

One last note, Tim has a brand new contest for a super dope sweatshirt running for this month, courtesy of Cheeky Sumo, but if you’re not a paid subscriber, you really need to remedy that so you can be entered into the contest.

He also has a Youtube channel, so do check him out there, as well:

Sumo Stomp on Youtube

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Doha plays host to this week’s UFC event, and it’s a solid action card. Not too many top names, but certainly some reliable action fighters and a lot to look forward to.

Dan Hooker and Arman Tsarukyan always deliver, and after their little tiff at the weigh-ins, tempers may be flared here. Belal Muhammad and Ian Machado Garry will tussle at welterweight…

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Remember how events like this were something we’d get every other month? Or maybe every three months? Man, those were great times. We were spoiled, so spoiled. But we have a great event here with two title fights and a bunch of absolute bangers.

Very little waste on this one, so we break down almost all of it while also making a detour to talk about The…

Alright, kids. Stephie is taking the week off, so she left me the keys to the place. And I wish the circumstances were more fun, but we gotta talk about this rotten gambling scandal.

Then there’s this card this weekend, and it’s not looking great. Not much on name value, but here’s hoping there’s some decent action on it. Otherwise, Mick Maynard needs another thorough roasting on social media.

UFC Vegas 111 Card

* Gabriel Bonfim vs Randy Brown 170lbs

* Matt Schnell vs Joseph Morales 125lbs

* Muslim Salikhov vs Uros Medic 170lbs

* Ismael Bonfim vs Chris Padilla 155lbs

* Marco Tulio vs Christian Leroy Duncan 185lbs

* Jamall Emmers vs Hyder Amil 145lbs

* Ricky Simón vs Raoni Barcelos 135lbs

* Mayra Bueno Silva vs Jacqueline Cavalcanti 135lbs

* Josh Hokit vs Max Gimenis 265lbs

* Tecia Pennington vs Denise Gomes 115lbs

* Miles Johns vs Daniel Marcos 135lbs

* Jackson McVey vs Zach Reese 195lbs

UFC Vegas 111 Fun Factoids

* Some of these will be fun

* Some are gonna suck

* Randy Brown is Jamaican, probably says “bumbaclot“ a bunch

* No Sedriques Dumas

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Please consider becoming a paid member for bonus content and other fun perks. We need some ice cream money, because we love ice cream.

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See, it wasn’t until we stopped recording that we remembered this card was an early one in Abu Dhabi. And it makes all the sense in the world, since this is an actually great card. Like, top to bottom? It’s not bad at all and has some absolute bangers and topped by two title fights.

Listen as we agonize in making the tough choices and then the surprisin…

So here’s what we’ve got: Stephie’s backing most of the underdogs, which is very rare. She’s also down on the card, while I’m not. I actually like it! Lots of disagreement on where this card is going or how good it actually is, but we had some fun breaking it down.

And yeah, we’ve got hard times. No TV or film talk this week, but we do start off with a bit of things that are bumming us out. And if you’re bummed out, we’ll hold your hand, too. We’re all we’ve got, so let’s make the most of it.

UFC Vancouver Card

* Reinier de Ridder vs. Brendan Allen 185 lbs

* Kevin Holland vs. Mike Malott 170 lbs

* Marlon Vera vs. Aiemann Zahabi 135 lbs

* Manon Fiorot vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius 125 lbs

* Cody Gibson vs. Aoriqileng 135 lbs

* Kyle Nelson vs. Matt Frevola 155 lbs

* Charles Jourdain vs. Davey Grant 135 lbs

* Bruno Silva vs. Hyun Sung Park 125 lbs

* Danny Barlow vs. Djorden Santos 185 lbs

* Kyle Prepolec vs. Drew Dober 155 lbs

* Stephanie Luciano vs. Ravena Oliveira 115 lbs

* Azamat Bekoev vs. Yousri Belgaroui 185 lbs

* Melissa Croden vs. Tainara Lisboa 135 lbs

UFC Vancouver Fun Factoids

* Ranked Fights: 3

* Ranked Fighters: 8

* Fighters coming off losses: 16

* Contender Series Alumni: 9

* TUF Alumni: 3

* Road to UFC Alumni: 1

* Debut: 2

We sincerely hope you enjoy listening and that you'll give us your patronage with a subscription. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you all so very much. We appreciate every one of you.

Please consider becoming a paid member for bonus content and other fun perks. We need some ice cream money, because we love ice cream.

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UFC 320 is here, and it’s a great card. That’s it. No snark, no sarcasm. It’s good, and has a fair amount of promise.

Sure, there’s some nitpicking to do here and there. But we breaks it down to the bone gristle to ensure you have the proper perspective on this one. With two title fights and some rather consequential bouts, there’s a good amount of meat…

The Aki Basho is in full swing—Day 13 to be exact—but we’re not gonna let it get completely away from us this time. That’s why we have our good friend, Tim Bissell of Sumo Stomp joining us for all the analysis, updates, and big storylines. Tim takes us through all the best moments of the tournament, including critiques of the leaders’ performances, how the other wrestlers are faring, and some predictions.

Tim also has his storefront up and running where paid subscribers get a discount, but there’s an update that U.S. customers need to look out for. One last note, Tim has a brand new contest for a super dope sweatshirt running for this month, courtesy of Cheeky Sumo, but if you’re not a paid subscriber, you really need to remedy that so you can be entered into the contest.

He also has a Youtube channel, so do check him out there, as well:

Sumo Stomp on Youtube

We would love it if you could subscribe to our show. This will give you access to our bonus content and it also helps us keep the lights on!

We sincerely hope you enjoy listening and that you'll give us your patronage with a subscription. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you all so very much. We appreciate every one of you.

Please consider becoming a paid member for bonus content and other fun perks. We need some ice cream money, because we love ice cream.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit levelchangepodcast.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit levelchangepodcast.substack.com

Is UFC Noche 2025 good? Is it bad? Is it just in a weird place to the point where the UFC doesn’t even care about the branding already? Man, listen… it’s just there. You got an event series kickstarted from the premise of celebrating Mexican fighters near Mexican Independence Day and both main eventers are Brazilian.

So, there’s that.

Other than that, there’s some fun to be had but we can’t get away from how odd this all is. But we do get to talk a little more about great TV!

Side note: We could really use some paid subscriptions. It’s been really tough keeping the ship afloat, so if you could find it in your heart to throw one our way, that would be great. Thank you so much.

UFC Noche Main Card

* Diego Lopes vs. Jean Silva 145 lbs

* Rob Font vs. David Martinez 135 lbs

* Jared Gordon vs. Rafa García 155 lbs

* Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dustin Stoltzfus 185 lbs

* Alexander Hernandez vs. Diego Ferreira 155 lbs

* Santiago Luna vs. Quang Le 135 lbs

* José Medina vs. Dusko Todorović 185 lbs

* Claudio Puelles vs. Joaquim Silva 155 lbs

* Tatiana Suarez vs. Amanda Lemos 115 lbs

* Jesus Aguilar vs. Luis Gurule 125 lbs

* Zach Reese vs. Sedriques Dumas 185 lbs

* Alessandro Costa vs. Alden Coria 125 lbs

* Alice Pereira vs. Montserrat Rendon 135 lbs

* Rodrigo Sezinando vs. Daniil Donchenko 170 lbs

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A good Fight Night event? Yes! In fact, it might even be a great Fight Night event. The UFC heads to Paris and brings not only the a smattering of European standouts, but they’ve assembled some absolute bangers and some other pretty fun bouts.

Plus, we talk so much about shows on Apple TV that it’s a shame they don’t sponsor us. There’s so much good stu…