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Interview: Karate Combat champ ‘Turbo’ targets ‘spectacular’ KO of Alvey, bouts vs Till, Machida next

Karate Combat’s middleweight champion, Ross Levine, is gearing up for champ-champ status as he takes on ‘Smilin’ Sam Alvey for the vacant heavyweight title at KC 43 this Friday night in Las Vegas. Middleweight to heavyweight might seem like a a great leap, but Karate Combat’s heavyweight division caps off at 205-pounds. Before attempting to become Karate Combat’s first ever heavyweight king, as well as the promotion’s first ever double champ, Levine caught up with Bloody Elbow for an exclusive interview.

When he’s not racking up wild highlights in the Karate Combat pit, Ross is putting his doctorate of Physical Therapy to use by running his own TURBO Sports Performance practice. Levine speaks about how his PT career has aided his prize fighting gig, and has also allowed him to help other martial artists stay healthy. There’s an interesting dichotomy there between his two professions, with one assisting the health of someone, and the other earning two separate slots on my Karate Combat top-5 knockouts article.

Being a Karate Combat champion, I asked Ross if he feels any added pressure to represent Karate as he goes up against a 20+ UFC fight veteran in Alvey. He also opened up about how the ease of his weight cut translated to more rigorous training sessions, and how he would like to be present to watch Sam step on the scale. For those who don’t know, Alvey went full Daniel Cormier for his Karate Combat debut in the Dominican Republic, allegedly grabbing the towel to clock in. Levine also acknowledged the size advantage held by Alvey, but still believes he will put away the ex-UFC fighter in ‘spectacular fashion.’

Before it’s all said and done, ‘TURBO’ Levine expresses his desire to compete at either 185-pounds, or 205-pounds, depending what the better scenario is. He also mentioned a couple of potential Karate Combat opponents, including Darren Till, and former UFC champions Luke Rockhold and Lyoto Machida.

Check out the audio version of this interview right here.

Bloody Elbow will be on location for this KC 43, so make sure to follow along on our social media platforms to see and hear some of the hustle and bustle. The start time for this Karate Combat 43 fight card is set for 9:00 pm ET.

Ross ‘TURBO’ Levine video interview

Doctorate in Physical Therapy by day, Karate Combat champ by night

EM: I did a little bit of research and discovered that you have a doctorate in Physical Therapy. Are you kidding me?

RL: No sir! That’s it. That’s my real job, and then the Clark Kent stuff comes off and I’m a prize fighter as well, like my side gig. Funny to think that a professional fighter does that as the side gig. Usually, it’s like something else is the side gig. But yeah man, I’ve had my doctorate now almost 10-years. I’ve worked in clinic at a bunch of different places, and as of last July, so it’s been about a year-and-a-half now, I opened my own business called TURBO Sports Performance. I work almost exclusively with martial artists, combat sports athletes on the rehab side, on the strength and conditioning side.

EM: I don’t know if I can think of a better job to have while also being a professional athlete.

RL: Yeah, true. It helps, man. It definitely helps. I would say the biggest thing that it really helps me with is learning when to push harder, and when to pull back. And knowing my body so well, and figuring out okay, is this an injury, or am I just a little sore, or do I need to like suck it up and keep going? Because there is a fine line. I think like 99% of combat athletes always err on the side of like, just keep going, just keep pushing. And that’s when you usually either get sick, or injured, or something weird happens in your camp.

UFC guy vs. Karate Combat champion

EM: Sam Alvey was a longtime UFC veteran, and now he’s facing you, a Karate Combat champion. Does that put any extra pressure on you to represent the Karate community?

RL: No, not at all. Not at all. At the end of the day, it’s me vs. Sam. I don’t think Sam is entering this saying like he’s got to hold it down for his former organization. It is what it is, but in my eyes yes, he’s more of a household name than I am, and I would like to absorb that from him by putting him away in beautiful fashion. There’s no more pressure on this fight than any other fight. At the end of the day, you got to win. Winning is the only thing that matters, the only thing people respect, it’s the only thing people talk about.

Moving up from middleweight

EM: You don’t have to cut as much weight this time, and that’s always a blessing, right? How’s fight week? How does it feel compared to having to cut down to middleweight?

RL: It’s different. It’s funny because I was just telling this to our buddy Mallory Woods yesterday, but not cutting weight has made my camp significantly more challenging. And what I mean by that, not challenging as a sense of like oh I have all these things to worry about, but challenging in the intensity. Because typically when you are looking to cut weight, the last like three to four weeks you begin to taper things down.

You’re not going as intense in your sessions, because we know there’s a risk of either hurting yourself, or getting sick, because we’re starting to pull down and deplete so that we can make weight. So now that we don’t have to worry about that, I’m eating a crazy amount of calories so my macros are through the roof right now.

Training with big bodies

RL: We had anticipated moving up to 205, so I’ve been working with big bodies the entire camp. There’s a couple of people like Steve Walker, he’s a Lion Fight cruiserweight world champion, so he walks around at like 235 and he’s massive, like tall southpaw, so that works out great. Yorgan De Castro, another former UFC fighter. A heavyweight. He’s like 270, 265 but super-athletic. Has one-punch knockout power, so he’s been a huge help for me.

Jon McNeil, Andrew Jacobs, Jerrel Cox, like all these guys. Romani Alicea. These guys all been instrumental parts of my training camp. It’s been great. Jack Burke, another tall southpaw from the Northeast. Just been crushing camp, man. Getting a lot of big bodies and just prepping myself for what comes next.

Sam Alvey or Sam Towelvey?

EM: In his KC debut, Sam Alvey earned the nickname Sam Towelvey when he may, or may not have, grabbed the towel to make weight. Are you going to make it a point to be present for his weigh-in so something like that doesn’t happen this time?

RL: I mean, I also don’t think that Sam has ever had issues making weight. If I remember correctly, throughout his career I don’t know if he’s ever missed weight. I’d have to fact check that, but I also understand that the Dominican Republic was not the easiest place to make weight if you were cutting down from a certain weight. I know there was an issue with saunas, an issue with bathtubs, probably problem with getting food. Like the DR is not the best infrastructure for combat sports, when you’re a weight class sport.

So, I’m going to give Sam the benefit of the doubt. Would I like to be there and see that he makes weight? Sure. But at the end of the day, if he misses weight, and the title is still vacant, I’m not going to make him suck down. I’d rather just take 20% of his purse. So i’ll take some of that money alongside with me, and then as long as I’m still available to win my title, then we’re all good. He’s going to be bigger than me no matter what, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s two-pounds or twenty-pounds heavier, I still got to go and do my job.

Ross Levine’s prediction for Sam Alvey fight at Karate Combat 43

EM: What is your official prediction for your Karate Combat 43 ?

RL: I put him away in a spectacular fashion, as I always do.

Darren Till, Luke Rockhold, Lyoto Machida

EM: You go out there on Friday and win Karate Combat’s inaugural heavyweight title. Then what? Do you want to go back down to middleweight, or stay up at 205-pounds?

RL: I’m certainly available to defend and compete at both weight classes. I have no issues with that. 205 is obviously super-easy, 185 is not super… [adorable puppy snores followed by praise for being the goodest girl]. Yeah man, 185 is not crazy challenging for me either. I have an amazing team. My team is great, my nutritionist is unbelievable.

It’s really whatever the better opportunity, and the better payday, presents itself. I really don’t have to make any call outs. I know that they’ve been looking at big names. Darren Till has crossed my mind, and has crossed the internet a couple of times. Luke Rockhold, [Lyoto] Machida even. So, there’s a couple of names in the works, but of course any other rostered fighter that is able to compete for a title. I’m down.

**The complete Ross ‘TURBO’ Levine video interview is towards the top of the page, and contains much more Ross ‘TURBO’ Levine!

Karate Combat 43 fight card



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