The Level Change Podcast

The holidays are always good for fun videos and photos, lively quips and interviews and lots of social media posts by combat sports athletes, but none have been quite as mesmerizing as the ones Conor McGregor puts out. Over the last two weeks of the holiday season, the Irish former champ-champ kept jaws wagging with some over the top antics.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

We start off with his appearance at the Joshua-Wallin / Wilder-Parker fight card where he was instantly memed following video footage of him seemingly jabbering Cristiano Ronaldo’s ear off, all while the soccer star looked like he’d rather be anywhere but the seat he was in. Conor delighted in his captive audience, regaling them with talks of a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao and the size of the ring the boxers would be in.

From there we discuss his interview with Gareth Davies where “The Notorious” said the UFC was gravely mistreating him. He even went so far as to say that no other fighter in history had been as mistreated as he had (the entire roster would like a word). He lamented how a fight with Pacquiao was being brought to him and UFC was doing nothing.

Then we got to his New Year’s announcement of the next appointment on his fight schedule. Yesterday, he announced that his next contest would indeed be against Michael Chandler. McGregor stated that the fight would go down at International Fight Week and most surprisingly, it would be at the middleweight limit of 185lbs.

We also have a stellar interview with EZ PR’s Ed Zitron who weighed in on crypto and AI and all the pitfalls associated with it. It was an enlightening conversation that you won’t want to miss and to start off this 2024 year with a bang, we’re giving it away to you for FREE, so make sure you check it out and hit the subscribe button if you haven’t already done it.

Thank you for reading this post and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

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UFC 296 is a card done right and proof that when the UFC wants to, they can absolutely put on great events. With the stranglehold they have over the sport, all their cards could look a lot better and they certainly need to get the majority of them out of that stinkin’ Apex facility, but I digress. We need to stay on track here.

Bloody Elbow is fighting f…

It’s been another busy week, especially regarding the UFC antitrust case. With the mountains of discovery now available, there’s a veritable treasure trove of documents that include contract information, text messages, e-mails…just about everything but the kitchen sink.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our m…

Well, after a week off from UFC weekend content, we’re back to the grind. We’ve got a very nice event this weekend in UFC Austin, so we selected a quartet of contests that we feel are the most important ones. Here’s the bouts we predicted:

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becomin…

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A lot has happened since our last episode so we tried to cram it all in a neat package. First, we went over the absolutely phenomenal cards that were Bellator 301 and UFC Vegas 82. Bellator saw two new champions crowned but never let on that the PFL purchase revelation was just two days away. They kept their secret in the most impenetrable vault.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

UFC Vegas 82 was also a great card. Top to bottom, the event delivered all manner of submissions and some gnarly knockouts, as well. In practice, it performed so much better than it did on paper. One thing is clear, and that is Paul Craig’s ceiling.

We also discussed the latest developments in the UFC antitrust case. Zuffa, UFC, et al are not fairing well with their motions. The honorable Judge Boulware indicated that he was going to deny their motion for summary judgement. He also denied their motion to reopen discovery and then he did something nobody was expecting—he put injunctive relief back on the table for the plaintiffs if they win.

Finally, in our bonus section (which is FREE today), we welcomed back Bloody Elbow’s Tim Bissell for a Sumo Stomp update of the Kyushu basho, which is in the last days now. Find out how those ozeki jitters affected some of the wrestlers and what’s going on with the ‘Angry Hamster’. If you’re a budding Sumo fan, this is a can’t-miss episode.

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the Level Change Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.

You read that headline right, folks. Conor McGregor, who was expected to headline UFC 300 (never official, though) is no longer on the card according to his longtime coach John Kavanagh. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Kavanagh revealed the UFC was the decider in this latest delay of McGregor’s return to action.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport…

We’ve got a special episode today, a preview of the last Grand Sumo tournament of the year, the Kyushu basho, with Bloody Elbow’s Tim Bissell. We go through quite a few topics, which I’ll list below, but if you require more in-depth analysis, Tim has a great feature that you can check out here.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

Now, let’s get cracking on that listicle.

* General terminology

* Why Mongolia is so important in Sumo

* How to attend one of these tournament matches

* What NOT to do when you’re a Sumo wrestler

* Will a new yokozuna be crowned

* Who is the ‘angry hamster’?

* Ozeki jitters

* All about Atamifuji

* All about Hokutofuji

* What’s up with Wakatakakage?

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the Level Change Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Last week, big news hit combat sports media circles. Well, actually two things happened:

* The UFC’s appeal to the antitrust case was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

* The release of every UFC athlete payout from 2011-2016

That release of the athlete payouts gave John Nash and Anton Tabuena plenty of fodder to go through, and the long and the shor…

We had a special guest drop in this week, TUF 30 winner Juliana Miller gave us 20 minutes of her time to discuss the surgery that’s taking her out competition until sometime next Spring, the external sponsors she’s managed to acquire, training at Sikjitsu and more. I had toyed with the idea of making this our bonus content, and in the episode, that is what you’ll hear, but in practice, I am making the entire episode free so everyone can have access to the interview.

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

We also weighed in on Francis Ngannou’s big weekend and the impact it’s had on combat sports and what we’d like to see next from “The Predator.” Finally, we made our picks on four fights from the main card. Spoiler alert: This is not a bad card! There are plenty of potential bangers on UFC Sao Paulo. Rejoice! Let’s take a look at the fights we selected to preview:

UFC Sao Paulo

* Jailton Almeida  vs.  Derrick Lewis

* Caio Borralho  vs.  Abus Magomedov

* Rodolfo Vieira  vs.  Armen Petrosyan

* Ismael Bonfim  vs.  Vinc Pichel

HEADS UP! IT’S FREE EPISODE WEEK!! THIS ONE IS ON THE HOUSE!!

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the Level Change Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.

A few weeks back, we told you all a rumor that Showtime Sports would be closing its doors for good by the time 2024 rolled around. Unfortunately, that rumor proved to be true, with confirmation hitting the community today. All 38 employees, including Stephen Espinoza, will have their positions terminated. Dan Rafael reports that contractors and freelancers (including Luke Thomas and Shakiel Mahjoury) will not be affected by the regular staff cuts.

We take a look at Tim Elliot’s extreme haterism, just how well the Misfts promotion is doing, and how Dillon Danis manages to keep failing upward. We also spent some time looking back on UFC Vegas 81, as well as providing a mini preview of the UFC 294 card via the four fights we chose for our picks and predictions. Let’s have a look at those:

Bloody Elbow is fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. If you share our mission, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today.

UFC 294

* Islam Makhachev  vs.  A. Volkanovski 155 lbs

* Kamaru Usman  vs.  Khamzat Chimaev 185 lbs

* Magomed Ankalaev  vs.  Johnny Walker 205 lbs

* Tim Elliott  vs.  Muhammad Mokaev 125 lbs

HEADS UP! IT’S FREE EPISODE WEEK!! THIS ONE IS ON THE HOUSE!!

Thank you for reading this article and listening to the podcast. Please consider subscribing to the Bloody Elbow Substack to enjoy our daily premium content. Your paid subscriptions are helping build our new site and keeping hope alive that our staff will remain intact. If you haven’t already, please pledge with a paid subscription today. If you have, please share this post far and wide.

Follow us as @BloodyElbow on twitter, facebook, instagram, and at BloodyElbow.Substack.com & BloodyElbowPodcast.Substack.com.

Thank you for listening to the Level Change Podcast. This post is public so feel free to share it.