Level Change Podcast

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Did you know Slow Horses is being renewed for another two seasons? Have you played the Korean sleeper hit Lies of P? Both are better uses of your time than half of this card coming up this week.

As far as the rest is concerned? Actually quite good! There’s some fun here in this one, but it’s a very lopsided event in terms of quality. Also, Gina Carano go…

Yes, the streets are correct. Victor is back, and he’s starving. Despite a not-so-great vacation, he’s somewhat rested and talking in third person for some reason. And we are here to discuss a flatly not-good Apex card, which is now our lot in life. But at least the headliner promises to be fun. There’s some meat on this bone, but it’s a small bone to peck at.

But hey, we had some fun on the way back in. Witnessing the continued downfall of one Conor McGregor is nice, and we can’t wait to see how much worse things are about to get for him.

UFC Vegas 108 Card

* Tatsuro Taira vs. Hyun Sung Park 125 lbs

* Chris Duncan vs. Mateusz Rębecki 155 lbs

* Esteban Ribovics vs. Elves Brener 155 lbs

* Karol Rosa vs. Nora Cornolle 135 lbs

* Neil Magny vs. Elizeu Zaleski 170 lbs

* Danny Silva vs. Kevin Vallejos 145 lbs

* Nick Klein vs. Andrey Pulyaev 185 lbs

* Rinya Nakamura vs. Nathan Fletcher 135 lbs

* Rodolfo Vieira vs. Tresean Gore 185 lbs

* Felipe Bunes vs. Rafael Estevam 125 lbs

* Pieira Rodriguez vs. Ketlen Souza 115 lbs

* Austin Bashi vs. John Yannis 145 lbs

UFC Vegas 108 Fun Factoids

* Ranked Fights: 1

* Ranked Fighters: 3

* Fighters coming off losses: 14

* Contender Series Alumni: 9

* TUF Alumni: 3

* Road to UFC Alumni: 2

* Debuting Fighters: 1

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

Since Victor is still on vacation on the beautiful sands of the Dominican Republic, Tim Bissell of Sumo Stomp joining me for double duty, first to help me break down the best fights from UFC Abu Dhabi, then to give us all the highs and lows of the Nagoya Basho through day 13. We look at who’s riding high, and who’s in the trenches. It’s can’t-miss content for sumo fans both new and old. Tim will be back next week to go over the tournament, look at who won and how they did, and who ended up being the best and worst performer of the Basho.

Today’s 2-hour episode is free, but we urge you to subscribe with your wallets if you can. The economy being what it is has put tremendous hardships on everyone, ourselves included. If you have some spare change in your swear jars or couch cushions, please consider a paid subscription. Thank you so much for your patronage.

UFC Abu Dhabi Selected Fights

* Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder 185 lbs

* Petr Yan vs. Marcus McGhee 135 lbs

* Shara Magomedov vs. Marc-Andre Barriault 185 lbs

* Asu Almabayev vs. Jose Ochoa 125 lbs

* Nikita Krylov vs. Bogdan Guskov 205 lbs

* Bryce Mitchell vs. Said Nurmagomedov 135 lbs

* Amanda Ribas vs. Tabatha Ricci 115 lbs

* Martin Buday vs. Marcus Buchecha 265 lbs

UFC Abu Dhabi Fun Facts

* Ranked Fights: 4

* Ranked Fighters: 11

* Fighters coming off losses: 12

* Contender Series Alumni: 3

* TUF Alumni: 3

* Road to UFC Alumni: 0

* Debuting Fighters: 1

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

Since Victor is on vacation on the beautiful sands of the Dominican Republic, I decided I needed to pull out all the stops. We have our brother from another timeline, Mookie Alexander, now of The Soap Box Score (and still SBNation), joining me to break down select fights from UFC 318. Why only select fights? Because this card is a travesty. Dustin Poirier’s swan song deserved a better card than this, but beggars can’t be choosers, so we’re only breaking down the handful of contests that matter.

In our second segment, Tim Bissell of Sumo Stomp stops in to give us all the highlights of the Nagoya Basho. We are into the seventh day of the tournament, so the first six days are broken down to their atoms. We look at who’s riding high, and who’s in the trenches. It’s can’t-miss content for sumo fans both new and old.

Today’s 2-hour episode is free, but we urge you to subscribe with your wallets if you can. The economy being what it is has put tremendous hardships on everyone, ourselves included. If you have some spare change in your swear jars or couch cushions, please consider a paid subscription. Thank you so much for your patronage.

One last thing; at the end of my segment with Mookie, I talked about a video clip of a cold-as-ice Dricus Du Plessis talking about what it takes to be a champion. This is that clip:

Dricus Du Plessis is a cold mofo

UFC 318 Selected Fights

* Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier 155 lbs

* Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov 185 lbs

* Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez 170 lbs

* Dan Ige vs. Patricio Pitbull 145 lbs

* Kyler Phillips vs. Vinicius Oliveira 135 lbs

* Marvin Vettori vs. Brendan Allen 185 lbs

UFC 318 Fun Facts

* Ranked Fights: 4

* Ranked Fighters: 10

* Fighters coming off losses: 15 + 1 draw

* Contender Series Alumni: 15

* TUF Alumni: 3

* Road to UFC Alumni: 0

* Debuting Fighters: 2

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

Dog’s breakfast is on the menu in Nashville, because the UFC clearly doesn’t care about quality when it comes to shoveling out content above all else. So while there are some fun fighters, some of these matchups aren’t great. But we did have a bit of fun talking about it, as well as Jon Jones thirsting for likability in retirement, as well as Conor McGr…

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

First off, you should watch Murderbot. It’s good. So good.

Secondly, our very own pal Mookie Alexander is back! We discuss Jon Jones’ retirement, what his legacy is, and how fickle the combat sports gods can be. Then we delve into UFC 317 with its two title fights along with some of the better matchups on the card.

Also, we take a bit of time to discuss …

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

From Chappell Roan to a bunch of TV talk, we parse this week’s UFC Atlanta Fight Night event headlined by welterweight dynamo Joaquin Buckley and former champ Kamaru Usman.

How’s the card? Not bad! Not great, either. It’s a nice little action card, after all. Not much in the way of divisional relevance here, and sometimes, that’s fine. We explore goofy w…

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

Damn, a whole lot of stuff has been happening. Francis Ngannou might actually be angling for a UFC return? And Jon Jones got something sassy to say about it? And would you believe Greg Hardy got arrested again?

We then look ahead to the joys of UFC 316, because there’s some real joys to be found here. Unfortunately, Ariane Lipski didn’t make weight due t…

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

The Natsu Basho ended ended a few days ago, so we decided that in light of the terrible, miserable UFC card this week, we would treat our listeners to a thorough review of all the action with our awesome friend, Tim Bissell of Sumo Stomp. Tim takes us through all the best moments of the tournament, including critiques of the winner’s performances, how t…

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No fights this week, kids. But that’s good! We get a chance to change the pace for a bit and catch up with Stephie’s adventures on the road and talk a bunch of movie and TV stuff. After the niceties of it all, we delve into the odd timing for Ilia Topuria to split from his gym to make a new home for himself in Madrid. We also address the recent fracas in Russia involving Nate Diaz, and end it with what in the world is going on with Jon Jones. Is he gonna actually fight Tom Aspinall, and if so, does he finally have the leverage he needs and wants over the UFC brass?

Stay hydrated, kids. Enjoy the show!

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