Level Change Podcast

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Gotta keep it real with you, chief - this card is ugly. There’s a few bright spots, but the Apex is clearly not where you’re gonna get the best or most thrilling events. Manel Kape (20-7) faces surging fellow flyweight Asu Almabayev (21-2) in a decent main event between #6 (Kape) against #8 (Almabayev). Is it a title contender? No, but it should be fun.…

It’s a nice little weekend for slams and submissions in Seattle, and the UFC graces the city with a decent Fight Night card that does exactly what it’s supposed to in building up developing talent and advancing divisions. For that, we get former champ Henry Cejudo vs Song Yadong in a rather nice main event.

And it’s a shame that this one was plagued with injuries and cancellations. There’s still some great meat on this bone, regardless. And that’s a good thing, considering how things can go in this game.

We also cover Michael Chandler vs Paddy Pimblett and how the news of a Pitbull brother finally signing with the UFC went on with very little fanfare. Also, Belal vs Jack Della and Valentina vs Manon? Yes, those are lovely. We’ll take both.

And remember kids: nobody's gonna talk more about that Austin Vanderford guy than us. Nobody. It's the Level Change Guarantee™

UFC Seattle Main Card

* Henry Cejudo vs. Yadong Song 135 lbs

* Brendan Allen vs. Anthony Hernandez 185 lbs

* Rob Font vs. Jean Matsumoto 140 lbs

* Jean Silva vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan 145 lbs

* Alonzo Menifield vs. Julius Walker 205 lbs

* Ion Cutelaba vs. Ibo Aslan 205 lbs

* Andre Fili vs. Melquizael Costa 145 lbs

* Nick Klein vs. Mansur Abdul-Malik 185 lbs

* Ricky Simón vs. Javid Basharat 135 lbs

* Austin Vanderford vs. Nikolay Veretennikov 170 lbs

* Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Eric McConico 185 lbs

* Modestas Bukauskas vs. Raffael Cerqueira 205 lbs

UFC Seattle Fun Factoids

* Ranked Fights: 2

* Ranked Fighters: 6

* Fighters coming off losses: 9

* Contender Series Alumni: 12

* TUF Alumni: 0

* Road to UFC Alumni: 0

* Debuting Fighters: 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.

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

No nice way to say this: this weekend’s PPV is not good. No bueno. Just a lot of filler with a deluge of local talent and two title fights. At least the co-main is guaranteed to be something for the more dedicated fans. The rest? Lotta not-great matchups and a fair amount of talent that may not really be ready for the big time.

Also, bad news from outside of the sport itself. You like being propagandized and condescended to? Good, because media row is about to be gone from the UFC and replaced with a bunch of dirty yuppies you never heard before with names like Bozo909 in a swanky suite covering fights.

Bon apetit!!

UFC 312

* Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland 185 lbs

* Weili Zhang vs. Tatiana Suarez 115 lbs

* Tallison Teixeira vs. Justin Tafa 265 lbs

* Jimmy Crute vs. Rodolfo Bellato 205 lbs

* Jake Matthews vs. Francisco Prado 170 lbs

* Jack Jenkins vs. Gabriel Santos 145 lbs

* Tom Nolan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev 155 lbs

* Cong Wang vs. Bruna Brasil 125 lbs

* Aleksandre Topuria vs. Colby Thicknesse 135 lbs

* Kody Steele vs. Rongzhu 155 lbs

* Kevin Jousset vs. Jonathan Micallef 170 lbs

* Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli 155 lbs

* Hyun Sung Park vs. Nyamjargal Tumendemberel 125 lbs

UFC 312 Fun Factoids

* Ranked Fights: 2

* Ranked Fighters: 4

* Fighters coming off losses: 8

* Contender Series Alumni: 10

* TUF Alumni: 2

* Road to UFC Alumni: 5

* Debuting Fighters: 5

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

UFC Fight Night goes back to the desert for another Saudi event, and it’s packed with some excellent talent on the main card. We’ve got the breakdown you need in the bonus portion where we ponder if Israel Adesanya (24-4) will feel freed from the burdens of being a champion as he attempts to beat back surging contender Nassourdine Imavov (15-4).

Also, Sh…

Another cursed era begins, and we’re not shy to carve into why things suck and what happens next. First order of business? The inauguration this week, with special UFC guests and what this latest round of cozying up to government could lead to.

But wait! We also discuss the odd case of Guilherme Cruz catching fire from Alex Pereira after a recent interview conducted with Alex’s sister Aline. And to top it all off, a funny yet tragic lesson of asking questions on social media from Michael Bisping, of all people.

Then there’s the GFL mess. We can promise to crack that nut in depth soon, but wow. Simply wow.

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

It seems it was not meant to be. We had a cracking main event for UFC 311 between Arman Tsarukyan and Islam Makhachev, but that fell apart the day before the fight. So, what now? Well, Renato Moicano was already on the card and will be fighting for the UFC lightweight championship instead!

Yeah, it’s a bummer. But it’s still a great fight and we break do…

Alright, kids - 2025 isn’t starting off great. It’s filler, through and through. Some good fighters, some awful matchups, but it’s mostly a matter of shoveling a bunch of fighters into the Apex to keep the execs happy. The era of low-effort check-cashing is only getting more intense.

Mackenzie Dern (14-5) headlines against Amanda Ribas (13-5) in a rematch that is only kinda necessary due to scheduling and ranking positions. Still not a fight that anyone was clamoring to see, and neither are a bunch of these other matchups. But don’t worry, we’ve got our main man Tim Bissell on to talk Sumo and bring some level of joy discussing a combat sports operation run with some actual competence.

UFC Vegas 101 Main Card

* Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Ribas 115 lbs

* Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Carlston Harris 170 lbs

* Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. César Almeida 185 lbs

* Chris Curtis vs. Roman Kopylov 185 lbs

* Austin Bashi vs. Christian Rodriguez 145 lbs

* Punahele Soriano vs. Uros Medic 170 lbs

UFC Vegas 101 Fun Factoids

* Ranked fights: 1

* Ranked fighters: 2

* Fighters coming off losses: 14 + 1 NC

* Contender Series alumni: 17

* TUF alumni: 1

* Debuting fighters: 5

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

We have returned, and we’re capping off a rocky and strange year with a very special episode. We’ve racked up our pseudo-awards for different categories in the combat sports world, and you’re not gonna want to miss this.

The categories are:

* Event of the year

* Fight of the year

* Person of the year

* Story of the year

* Dipshit of the year

* Genius of the year

* Comeback of the year

* Influencer of the year

Find out who our winners are, and why. Don’t be shy, let us know what you think in the comments and remember to keep an eye out on the Substack chat. We’re proud to have ended the year with your support, and hope we can continue to count in it moving forward.

Have a safe and prosperous new year, kids.

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

Ho! Ho! Ho! The end-of year holidays are upon us, so we had to have Tim Bissell come back for a year-in-review episode for the 2024 season. We talk about the highs and lows, unexpected retirements, standout wrestlers, those that didn’t shine quite so bright and more. Take a trip down Sumo memory lane with us this Christmas.

Make sure to check out Tim’s website, Sumo Stomp. It is so worth the visit considering the wealth of information there about the sport. If you’re new to Sumo or an old head, it’s a place worth going to.

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

In our latest episode, we look at the best fights from UFC Tampa, but fair warning, the pickings are slim. We look at all the things wrong with the last card of the year, as well. But the best part of the episode is Matt Brown stopping by for a quick interview with Stephie. Check out the fight card, fun factoids and our topic list for Matt’s segment.

UFC Tampa Card

* Colby Covington vs. Joaquin Buckley 170 lbs

* Cub Swanson vs. Billy Quarantillo 145 lbs

* Manel Kape vs. Bruno Silva 125 lbs

* Dustin Jacoby vs. Vitor Petrino 205 lbs

* Daniel Marcos vs. Adrian Yanez 135 lbs

* Navajo Stirling vs. Tuco Tokkos 205 lbs

* Michael Johnson vs. Ottman Azaitar 155 lbs

* Drakkar Klose vs. Joel Alvarez 155 lbs

* Sean Woodson vs. F. Padilla 145 lbs

* Miles Johns vs. Felipe Lima 145 lbs

* Miranda Maverick vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth 125 lbs

* Davey Grant vs. Ramon Taveras 135 lbs

* Piera Rodriguez vs. Josefine Knutsson 115 lbs

UFC Tampa Fun Factoids

* Ranked fights: 2

* Ranked fighters: 4

* Fighters coming off losses: 10

* Contender Series alumni: 11

* TUF alumni: 2

* Debuting fighters: 1

Matt Brown Topic List

* Fight Circus

* Blobtang

* Matt Brown Magical Mystery Tour

* Describe Fight Circus to a casual

* What would be your new concept fight for FC?

* Immortal Coffee

* Take on Colby-Joaquin and Colby’s legacy

* If you could name your elbows, what would their names be?

* What’s been the best part about retirement?

* What’s been the worst?

* Is there a fighter out there right now that you feel uses their elbows as advantageously as you did?

* If you could give one kernel of advice for fighters, what would you tell them?

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