New Year, Same Lazy Booking | EP. 347

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 lbsUFC 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: 5We 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