From Getting Knocked Down to a Unanimous Decision: Michelle Khare's Road to Creator Clash 2
Michelle Khare
YouTuber Michelle Khare set out to see whether she could take on the lifestyle of a professional boxer and earn a real fight on an influencer boxing card. The video follows her from her first sloppy punches under 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Tony Jeffries, through a knockdown in her first sparring session and a months-long search for an opponent, to a five-round fight against chess streamer Andrea Botez at Creator Clash 2 in Tampa. Along the way, her coaching team changes, and the people around her explain what they think boxing demands beyond technique.
Why She Decided to Box
Khare describes the rise of influencer boxing events, which she credits largely to Jake and Logan Paul, KSI, and Deji. She says she had been "running away" from the trend for years. In her words, she has both a fight response and a flight response, and for a long time the flight response had won. She now wanted to "grow that fighter within" herself.
She says she messaged many coaches in Los Angeles and that many of them turned her down. The one who agreed to give her a shot was Tony Jeffries, an Olympic bronze medalist from Sunderland who coaches at Box 'N Burn in Santa Monica. Khare admits she finds him intimidating. Jeffries offers his own back-of-the-envelope calculation: across his 106 fights and the sparring rounds around them, he estimates he was punched in the face roughly 45,000 times.
Jeffries agreed to a 12-week fight camp. That left Khare 12 weeks to find an opponent and get accepted onto an event. At the time she had neither.
The Basics, and What Jeffries Expected to Be Hardest
The first sessions are about fundamentals. Jeffries says that with any new student he starts with stance, movement, footwork, and basic punches to see where they are. Early on he corrects Khare's instinct to throw a big, wild right hook. Because the lead hand is closer to the opponent, he explains, it has less distance to travel. She should first find her range with the jab and only then bring in the right hand. He also teaches her one of his favorite combinations, a hook thrown with full body weight behind it. Khare also asks, half-seriously, whether she is supposed to move when she sees a punch coming. His answer is that this is boxing and she has to defend herself at all times.
Jeffries predicts that technique will not be the hardest part. In his view, dedication will be. Khare will have to wake up at 5 a.m., come to the gym when she is sore and doesn't want to, and spend her time outside training on recovery. In effect, she will be giving her whole life to boxing for 12 weeks.
Khare describes what that meant in practice. She trained six days a week, sometimes twice a day. She did recovery work and ice baths at home, and a professional chef prepared her meals to set macro and calorie targets. She cancelled her social plans for three months. She notes she has made this kind of lifestyle switch before for ballet and figure skating, and she frames it as necessary to prove to a promoter that she deserves a slot on a card.
The First Sparring Session and the Knockdown
About a month into training, Khare had her first sparring session, against Heather, a trainer at Box 'N Burn. Jeffries notes that Heather has a lot of experience and is about 20 pounds heavier. He stresses that the session is for learning, not for hurting each other. They planned four three-minute rounds. Khare's own nerves show in a small moment: when she asks whether there are any other rules, the answer is simply to hit and not be hit.
Jeffries explains that the first time in the ring brings a lot of nerves and some self-doubt: why am I doing this, this person is going to punch me in the head. Between rounds he gives her specific feedback. When she throws the right hand, she has to bring her hands back to her face, or the opponent will counter. He also tells her she is becoming predictable and needs to keep moving. The broader point, voiced in the video, is that looking good on the pads is completely different from facing an opponent. Applying training in a fight-or-flight situation, where you get hurt if you don't react in a split second, is a separate skill.
As she tired, Khare started dropping her hands. Heather landed what Jeffries calls a perfect overhand right and knocked her down. Jeffries frames it as part of learning. A knockdown in sparring can break someone mentally, he says, but now they know what to work on. The real question for him was how she would respond: whether she would quit, decide the whole thing was a mistake, or come back and finish the 12 weeks.
Khare says it was the first time she genuinely considered quitting. All the time and effort felt like it had amounted to nothing. None of her combinations worked, she was exhausted, and she was embarrassed to be dropped in what was supposed to be a friendly spar, especially while trying to prove herself to Jeffries and promoters. When Jeffries asked her directly whether she wanted to continue or stop, she said she wanted to keep going.
Training continued, including a Rocky-inspired drill in which she had to catch chickens. Jeffries jokes that he has never met a boxer who was scared of chickens.
The Hardest Part: Finding an Opponent
Khare says that none of the training mattered if she couldn't get on a card, and that finding a fight was the most frustrating and difficult part of the whole project. She had promising calls with several organizations and even an offer from Misfits. With Creator Clash, the problem was finding an opponent who actually wanted to fight her. As a 5'2" female social media influencer, she says, finding someone who matched all of those categories was very hard. She tells one creator she is looking for a female YouTuber around 5'2" and 115 pounds.
The 12 weeks ended and the camp was officially over without a fight. She says she trained for the first Creator Clash, but that fight didn't happen. She kept searching for several more months.
The breakthrough came after Ludwig's chess boxing event in December, where Khare watched Andrea Botez fight Dina. She was impressed by how hard both went. Botez had built her following on chess, and Khare acknowledges they were "not perfect height and weight," but she called Botez anyway to pitch Creator Clash. Khare says what drew her to Creator Clash was its mission. The event, organized by idubbbz (Ian Jomha) and Anisa Jomha, raises money for charity. She tells Botez she had been talking to the organizers for about nine months. The match was eventually confirmed for Creator Clash 2 in April.
Losing Tony, Gaining Kevan
The confirmation came with a complication. Jeffries was leaving Los Angeles with his family to travel the world and had bought a one-way ticket to Thailand. Khare now had eight weeks to rebuild her team and finish without him. On a video call, Jeffries tells her he is still on her team for anything she needs. She thanks him for believing in her and says that while she is doing this for herself, she is also doing it for him.
Kevan Watson took over. He and Jeffries opened the gym together in 2012, and he describes them as business partners who have become like brothers. Watson says he was excited and initially nervous when Jeffries asked him. He explains that he got into coaching because he never had anyone who truly believed in him and pushed him to the next level, and he wants to be that person for someone else.
A Strategy for a Bigger Opponent
According to Khare, Botez is four inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. Watson's view is that the size advantage belongs to Botez, but Khare's movement will make her hard to hit and can neutralize anyone. He predicts Botez will get tense, throw big looping shots, and tire herself out. The camp also added strength and power work.
To get used to bigger opponents, Khare sparred with Haley Sharpe, whose Creator Clash fight against JustaMinx Khare calls possibly the fight of the night. Sharpe is a bit taller and bigger than Botez, which made her a more experienced and scarier training partner.
The core of the plan was the pocket. Khare describes it as the space between an opponent's body and the end of their fist, which is also the danger zone. Watson wanted to teach her to get inside it, land body shots, and come up top with her overhand right, which he calls a sledgehammer. He shares that he once took a fight on four days' notice against an opponent around six feet tall and won in the first round. Khare calls the strategy extremely high risk but high reward: she would either have to dodge a lot of punches or absorb a lot of them.
Why the Fight Mattered to Watson
Watson explains why this fight carries extra weight for him. Creator Clash 2 supported The Longest Day for the Alzheimer's Association. His phone background for eight or nine years has been his mother, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2014. He says she still fights even though she doesn't remember everything, that it's "in her DNA." Seeing someone's mind go while they are still there is awful, he says, and the thought that his mother will forget who he is is the worst thing he can imagine. "But we fight."
One Hour with Tony
During a roughly 12-hour stop in Los Angeles, Jeffries came to the gym for a single one-hour session. He worked on combinations meant to catch an opponent off guard, such as a right hand followed by a left hook to the body when she is expecting one to the head. He told Khare to always be prepared when the opponent moves back.
He also taught a psychological trick around the referee's "break" command. When the referee says break, both fighters are supposed to step back. Jeffries suggests Khare instead keep coming forward. The referee will tell her off, but her opponent will see that she doesn't even want to break and just wants to fight, and that gets into the opponent's head. He calls these little things that give you an advantage. He also warns her never to wipe a nosebleed, because that signals the opponent has hurt you.
Afterward, Jeffries says he has trained many UFC fighters, athletes, and boxers, and that Khare trains as hard as, if not harder than, anyone he has worked with. He predicts she will definitely win against another creator.
Scouting, the Ankle, and Fight-Week Logistics
The team's view was that the fight starts the moment they land in Tampa. In their view, every interaction is part of the mind games, and the first time the fighters see each other is when nerves set in. Watson describes the camp's goal as being "confident but not comfortable."
Khare reveals how far the scouting went: the team hired someone to watch every one of Botez's streams and log any mention of the fight or her training. When Botez released a short training video, a still image of her sparring showed that her stance leaned forward and was profiled to the right rather than facing forward. Khare says they made adjustments based on what they found.
At the weigh-in, Botez had to come down to 129 pounds and Khare had to be at least 120, because the fighters needed to be within 10 pounds of each other or the fight was off. Khare notes the irony that it didn't matter how hard either of them had trained that morning. It came down to her eating chocolate chip pancakes and a breakfast burrito while Botez was presumably in a sauna suit somewhere in the hotel. Khare weighed in at 120 and Botez at 126.
Khare also disclosed a problem she kept from Botez: she had rolled her ankle while sparring. The team taped both feet so no one could tell which ankle was hurt. She also had her braids done in advance so she could practice in them. The final workout took place at a gym in St. Petersburg, with Watson leading and Jeffries and James Doyle present. Watson says it mattered to him for Jeffries to see what they had built, and he left the session saying he wasn't worried before, and after seeing that session he was even more confident.
Watson had never worked a corner before. With Jeffries commentating the event, the corner would be Watson, Doyle, and Khare, without an Olympian among them. He describes a cornerman as a source of security, the voice the fighter has been listening to all camp, and he stresses that boxing is far from a solo sport. Asked what was unexpectedly hardest about the whole project, Khare answers: getting used to being hit in the head.
Fight Night
Backstage, Watson describes chaos and sensory overload, with costumed superheroes and a mariachi band, and says the job was to stay focused on winning a fight. He sensed Khare getting nervous from hearing the crowd, so he took her out to look at the audience before she changed, to work off some of the nerves. Jeffries, on commentary, says he boxed in an Olympic semifinal and it was nothing like this arena's energy. Earlier on the card, Haley Sharpe won a unanimous decision over Marisha Ray.
The commentators describe a tactical first round. Khare moves off her lead foot, turns angles, and stays away from Botez's power hand. Botez begins cutting off the ring instead of chasing. Khare's corner tells her to stay disciplined and notes that Botez drops her hands when stepping back. In round two, the commentators say Khare's right hand may be getting repetitive and that she could set it up better. They also praise footwork that relieves Botez's pressure.
In round three, an exchange broke Khare's nose, though she didn't know it at the time. Watson says that when she stepped back and wiped her nose, he could see "beast mode" activate. Swelling appeared under Botez's left eye, and a Khare right hand knocked Botez off balance. Botez's corner told her she was longer and stronger and that "we need this round." The commentators took that to mean her corner felt she might be down on the cards. In round four, Botez found more success with her jab and landed a good counter. Khare's corner told her that not everything needs to be a huge shot and to set things up with doubles and triples. In the fifth and final round, the commentators said Botez would need a knockdown to make it close, and Khare kept landing jabs, right hands, and body shots until the bell.
One commentator called Khare possibly the most technically skilled female influencer fighter they had seen in influencer boxing. All three judges scored it 49–46, and Khare won by unanimous decision. In the ring, she first praised Botez, thanked Ian and Anisa for making hers the final women's fight of the night, and said: "Tony, I did this for you." Jeffries said he was proud of the work she put in. The video closes by returning to the moment after her first knockdown, when Jeffries asked whether she wanted to quit. He reflects that many people would have stopped after being hit in the face, but he knew she had it in her to be great.
Fighting out of the blue corner, she's YouTube's daredevil, Michelle.
And her opponent, fighting in the red corner, Andrea Botez.
Got transportation.
Have some fun. Show them what you're about. Let's go. It is time, gentlemen. Look at the intensity on both ladies' faces. Round one, here we go.
We dance.
No.
No.
Oh my God.
Again, again. Relax, relax and do it.
I messaged so many coaches in the city of Los Angeles to work with me, and many of them said no. And ironically, the one person who said, "I'll give you a shot," is a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.
Please welcome Sunderland's very own Tony Jeffries. The highest-profile boxer that we've ever had in the Northeast, winning an Olympic medal. He's back and looks better than ever.
He's the perfect resume of a person you do not want to F with. When I think of Tony Jeffries, I am extremely intimidated.
I had 106 fights in my career, right? And I've done the maths. If I averaged out around four rounds for each fight and I got punched in the face seven times in each one of the rounds, and then for each one of them fights I sparred 10 times, six rounds, got punched seven times each one of them rounds, I was punched in the face around 45,000 times. How crazy is that, isn't it?
Let's go. Try. Oh, it's a sloppy punch, a sloppy punch. Think about this. Forget your stance. Which hand is closer to me? This one. It's got less distance to travel. So with you trying to throw a big wild right hook, and you can't even land this one, chances are that one's not going to land. Okay? So try and get your range with your left hand, with your jab. Once you start getting some range shots in, then we can throw that one. Okay, cool. Yeah.
That's it. Good.
So when I train someone for the very first time, I take them over to the basics of boxing: the stance, the movement, the footwork, and some basic punches to see where they are.
One, two. Oh, wait, am I supposed to move out? If you see a punch coming or somebody coming, yeah, you've got to move. It's boxing. You've got to defend yourself at all times. You know that.
The hardest part with Michelle is going to be the dedication. This is going to be so, so hard for her. She's going to be waking up at 5 a.m. She's going to be coming to the gym when she's sore and doesn't feel like coming to the gym.
Give me more speed and power.
She's got to focus her time and energy on recovery outside of training.
That's better. That's what I want.
She's going to dedicate her full life to the sport of boxing for the next 12 weeks. I'm excited to see if she can get through it.
Good.
A few years ago, there was this emergence of influencer boxing events, really championed by Jake and Logan Paul and KSI and Deji. And I feel that I've been kind of running away from this whole influencer boxing thing.
The first fight come around, and I thought, what is this? Twenty thousand sold out instantly. He defended his title on the undercard of two YouTube guys fighting.
There's a fight response and a flight response, and for a long time I've had the flight response. But I think it's time for me to conquer that. I want to grow that fighter within me. Tony has agreed to do a 12-week fight camp with me, which means I have 12 weeks to find an opponent and get accepted into one of these events.
Also, you got married. Congratulations. That's going to be a video, I assume? It's something, yeah, yeah. And then outside of that, I am looking for a competitor. For what? For boxing. So if anybody is a YouTuber, female, 5'2", 115 pounds.
This is sick. Let's say if we're fighting, you throw a hook to me, and I block this. Boom. Yeah. So this is one of my favorite combinations, with a hook, too, with our full body weight behind that one. Do it. Oh, I feel that. That was solid. Again. Yes. Again. What's the hardest you've ever hit?
If I'm going to prove to a promoter that I'm worthy of a slot on their card, I am going to have to transform my entire lifestyle to that of a professional boxer. And I've done it a couple times before with ballet, figure skating, but this time it's for boxing, and I'm going all in.
It means training six days a week in the gym, sometimes two-a-days, coming home, doing recovery, ice baths, having a professional chef prepare all of my meals to the perfect macro and caloric amounts. It means canceling all of my social plans for the next three months. It means waking up early. It means dealing with the pain when it comes, and it means putting my best foot forward every morning. And so I've actually put all of those details, including my meal plan, every single workout that I did, in my app on mkfit.com.
Still okay.
We're getting ready for my first sparring session. I think it's going to be quite intense. I'm very nervous.
Not even breathing. Good, yeah.
So Michelle's first sparring session is going against Heather, who was one of the trainers at Box 'N Burn gyms. And Heather's got a lot of experience, and I think she's got like 20 pounds of weight on Michelle.
It's been a while since I've been hit in the head pretty hard like this.
It's inevitable, right? We're about a month into training, and this is the first time she's getting in there. I know she's very nervous, but again, we're in here to learn, not here to hurt each other and try and knock me through the ropes. We've got four three-minute rounds.
All right, three, two, one. Three questions. Sorry, sorry. Are there any other rules or things we need to know? That's it. Okay. Hit and not be hit. Work time. It's cool.
The first time you step in the ring to spar with another opponent, you've normally got a lot of nerves going through your body. Sometimes a little bit of self-doubt kicking in, thinking, why the hell am I doing this? This person's going to punch me in the head.
Keep moving and feeling good. Keep our left hand high. If you've got your left hand and you got caught. Up, hands up. Keep moving. Time. Good work, good work, good work. In the corner. Deep breath.
As the round went on, you got better. Just stay relaxed, yeah. Now think about this. She's traveling around, her hands down here. You can hit with that right hand, but you need to bring your hands back to your face. If you throw another jab and it's coming down there, she's going to counter. Bring them back to your face. Stay relaxed. Deep breaths. Ten seconds.
Work time. Right underneath the steel.
It doesn't matter how good you look on the mitts. You step in the ring and face another opponent, completely different bucket. The training is one thing, but applying the training in a fight-or-flight situation where you are going to get hurt if you don't move on a split-second notice, those are two separate things.
Michelle, you're being predictable. Keep moving. It's cool because I'm moving in. You're fit. You're strong. Hands up.
I'm sorry. I'm okay. I know you are. Come here. Relax, relax. With two minutes.
Michelle started dropping her hands, and when she dropped her hands, Heather threw a perfect overhand right and knocked Michelle down.
Deep breaths. I guess I'm not sure. Huh? You did.
All right, we're done. Thanks.
I'm sorry. Don't be sorry. It's all about learning. It's all about learning. You're just learning.
Being knocked down in a fight, in a sparring session, that can really break someone's heart and break them mentally. It was a little bit hard, but this is boxing, and it's all part of it.
The thing about that is we've got things to work on. We know what we're going to work on. That's the first real boxing that we've done. And this guy I've seen boxing since she was like 10 years old or whatever.
For a little walk on time as well.
Now the big thing is, what will Michelle do? How will she react to this? Will she quit? Will she think this was a mistake? Or will she come back and finish off the 12 weeks of Purina?
Don't give yourself a hard time.
It was so frustrating putting so much time and effort into training and then feeling like it all amounted to nothing. None of my combos were working. I was fatigued, and I was so embarrassed because I got dropped in what was supposed to be a friendly spar, especially because I'm trying to prove to Tony and to promoters that I deserve a spot on a real fight card. And this was the first time I genuinely considered just quitting altogether.
How's your head? No, good. Yeah? Clear? Yeah. All right, let's get in the ring.
Now let me ask you this. Do you want to continue this 12-week program, or do you want to stop and quit? No, I want to go. Of course you do. A fighter, a warrior. Of course you do. Boom.
So I'm helping Michelle catch these chickens because Rocky's done it, and if you've ever seen the Rocky movie, he was really good, and I want Michelle to be really good too. Give me power, give me power. Let's do it.
This one's an absolute killer.
I've never met a boxer before who was scared of chickens.
Literally none of the training I'm doing matters if I can't get on a fight card. I've had a few very promising calls. There are a couple different organizations that are interested.
Hey, we got an offer from Misfits. I just want to check with you before we take it, but I just need to find this opponent. A lot of the issue for me with Creator Clash is just finding an opponent who, in general, wants to do this with me.
The reality is finding a fight for me has been the most frustrating and difficult part of this entire thing. I am a five-foot-two female social media influencer boxing hopeful, and finding someone who also fits all of those categories, it's really hard.
Time. Yes. Now I want to do it for real.
But the 12 weeks were up, and fight camp was officially over. So for the next several months, I continued to search for an opponent, and that's when I saw Ludwig's chessboxing event.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
And then when the chessboxing event happened in December, I saw Andrea's fight against Dina, and I thought it was amazing. And they went hard too. I mean, they went.
Andrea is a chess expert who has built her entire social following on chess. And so after the chessboxing thing, I was like, we're not perfect height and weight, but I wonder if she'd be into this. So I actually called her.
I'm really, really excited to talk with you, first of all, obviously to congratulate you. And also I wanted to talk to you about Creator Clash.
So there's this up-and-coming event called Creator Clash, which is actually centered around raising money for charity.
This announcement today has me more excited than I've been in a while. iDubbbz and Anisa's Creator Clash just announced Creator Clash 2. They showed the full card. It's happening in April, and it's amazing.
When I heard about the mission and the people behind it, this is what actually interested me the most about pursuing this video. I have an opportunity to better myself, to challenge myself, and also hopefully inspire people to donate to a good cause at the same time.
I've been talking to them for like nine months, honestly. So even for Creator Clash 1, when I was hoping to participate. Because you did a boxing video already, right, for 60 days, or what? How long? So I trained technically for the first one, and then the fight didn't happen. We should see if it'd even be possible to add us into Creator Clash this year. Yeah. I hope it works. Me too. I'd be so happy.
It's happening. It's happening. I'm fighting at Creator Clash. I will be fighting Andrea Botez in Creator Clash 2.
What are you going to wear? I need your help.
But here's the thing. Tony is becoming a nomad and traveling the world with his family.
We are leaving our lovely home in Los Angeles, and I've just booked a one-way ticket to Thailand.
Now that the fight is secured, I have eight weeks to reassemble my team and somehow bring this to the finish line without Tony.
How's Europe? Is that where you are still? I'm in Australia right now. Oh my God. I saw your tweet that you're in Africa. That's crazy. To meet your final goals. I'm going to do it, Tony. That's exciting. So I'm here for you. I'm on your team, obviously, for everything, and if there's any questions, anything at all. No, it's just a challenge. Yeah, challenge accepted, right? Oh yeah.
I just wanted to say thank you for your belief in me. And when I think of who I'm doing this for, it's obviously for me, but it's for you. Oh man, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Means a lot. So if you're doing it for me, I know.
My name is Kevan Watson, and I'm taking over for Tony. Does that make you nervous? What's the bush part? The Tony part. My relationship with Tony, we are business partners. We opened the gym together in 2012, and now we're like brothers. Been through a lot together. I've got big shoes to fill, and I hope that I fill them.
My reaction when Tony suggested and asked me if I would take over the camp for Michelle was, I was really excited, nervous at first. But I think I really got into coaching because I wanted to be that great coach for somebody. But I never had anyone that really believed in me and really pushed me to excel to that next level. I want to be that person for somebody as well.
I'm so excited to be working with you. Yeah, feeling's mutual. It's great.
We have the fight secured eight weeks from today against Andrea Botez. So Andrea is four inches taller than me and 20 pounds heavier than me. And how are we going to do this? The size is with her, but we're going to be hard to hit. Your movement is going to make it hard for you to be hit. That movement is going to neutralize anybody, and she's going to get tense. She's going to throw these big looping shots. She's going to get exhausted.
I'm now understanding you're going to be fighting someone that's a little bit bigger than you. Great. Let's maybe work on some strength and some power.
I need to get more confident fighting people bigger than me, so I have the privilege of getting to spar with Haley Sharpe. If you've seen Creator Clash, you know Haley is a badass. Period.
Possibly fight of the night was JustaMinx and Yodeling Haley. It was better than most everything.
She is actually a little bit taller and bigger than Andrea. It's a good opportunity for me to go against an even more experienced and scarier opponent.
Okay. We're absolutely good.
I'm going to have to get very comfortable in the pocket.
Just keep it simple. Simple, right?
The pocket is basically the radius space between the opponent's body and the end of their fist. So I'm basically going to have to get in here, which is also the danger zone.
The plan is to teach Michelle how to get inside that pocket, get in there, hit those body shots, and come up top with Michelle's overhand right. It's a sledgehammer.
Have you ever had to fight someone four inches taller than you? Yeah, and 15 pounds. So I took a fight on four days' notice, and she was probably about six foot tall. And there's a picture of us, and it's like this. Oh my God, look at the height difference. Well, I won that fight in the first round, so that's what we're going to win for.
Our strategy is extremely high risk, but also high reward if I can pull it off. I either have to dodge a bunch of punches or eat a bunch of punches.
Okay. Okay, all right. You get back in there. Breathe. Take two deep breaths. Deep breaths. Again. Inhale, big inhale. Control.
For me as a coach, this win, this fight means so much to me, first and foremost because to know that an event like this is supporting The Longest Day, the Alzheimer's Association, that was just the icing on the cake for me.
Who's on your phone background? My phone background for the last eight, nine years has been my mom. My mom has been the most amazing person in my life since day one. In 2014, she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Even though she doesn't remember everything, she still fights. It's just in her. It's in her DNA.
You're not letting this define you. Absolutely not. It's the worst to see someone's mind go. They're still there, but they're not. That's just an awful thing to see, and to know that my mom's going to forget who I am is the worst thing I can imagine. But we fight.
Sorry. He's back. So sweaty, sorry. What are you feeling? Rips.
Tony is in LA for like 12 hours, and amidst all of his world travel, he has so kindly offered to come to the gym and train me for one hour today.
That's nice, man. I don't know if you do that intentionally, but you threw a right hand, left hook to the head, yeah, and you threw the right hand, left hook to the body. She was expecting left hook to the head.
Wasn't expecting to run.
This is the one hour I get with Tony of my fight camp before the actual fight, so I'm going to make the most of it. I'm so excited.
Always be prepared if she's
Moving back, always be prepared.
One, two.
We're not going that way. Do it. Perfect. Good. Come here, do it again. Yes, look, you've gone, it disappeared. Excellent. Good. Ciao. Ciao.
Now watch this. So we're inside. Oh, that's a break. Break, step back. Right. The referee's saying, "Break." You're supposed to be here. Break is supposed to step back and then get on with the boxing, yeah? What we're going to do is the referee says, "Break, break." You step back, I'm coming forward. Right? Now what's going to happen? The referee is going to see you: "Whoa, I told you, step back, step back." He's going to tell you off.
But now you're in her head: "She doesn't even want to break. She wants to fight." Yeah, you know what I mean? And you're here like this. Imagine what that's going to feel like. Okay, she's going to be, "Michelle wants it." Because this is what will give you the advantage. Little things there. Good, yeah. Psychology tricks, huge. It's good work.
How do you feel? Good. Sure? Yeah. Very few mistakes.
I was swimming out. If your nose bleeds, it's common for somebody. Never do that. My coach will go [__] crazy if I wipe my blood. Look at that, because all that takes is—yeah.
I've been around boxing my whole life. I've trained a lot of UFC fighters, athletes, boxers, and honestly, put my hand on my heart and say Michelle trains as hard, if not harder, than anyone that I've ever worked with. Now, when she goes in and fights another creator, she will win that fight. She will definitely win that fight, I'm telling you.
Time to go to Tampa. Oh my God.
Foreign.
The fight starts when you land. Those mind games start right away. That's the first time the fighters will see each other. I think that's when a lot of the nerves start to set in. You can kind of feel that anxiety. You can feel that anxiousness.
Good. It's just crazy that every interaction, every moment is part of it.
I feel like there'll be a lot of anxiety in the room, for sure, but the whole plan with this camp was to be confident but not comfortable. I know Michelle is going to be confident going in there.
So Andrea released a video of her training. You want to know how crazy I am? We hired someone to watch every single one of her streams and note any facts or mentions of the fight or her training in any capacity. I've seen everything, and what's funny is that I know they're intentionally short, but it reveals so much. In the still image of her sparring, we saw that her stance is more leaned over and profiled to the right as opposed to forward-facing. But we've definitely made adjustments based on all of this.
So fun.
This morning is the official weigh-in. Andrea has to come down to 129, and I have to make sure I am at least 120 pounds. So we got chocolate chip pancakes, breakfast burrito, the electrolytes here. If we don't make weight within 10 pounds of each other, then the fight is off. So ironically, it doesn't matter how much either of us trained, because this morning it's all about me eating these pancakes and Andrea being in a sauna suit somewhere in this hotel.
[Applause]
First up, Marisha Ray, Haley Sharpe, Dad. Man. Our next fighter is Michelle Khare. Next up, we have Andrea Botez, Ethan Nestor, John Hennigan, Harley, and finally, last but not least, iDubbbz. All right, one big round of applause for all of our fighters in the red corner, in the blue corner.
I think this face-off is very unique. You're in a room with a bunch of different characters from all walks of life. They're all huge personalities. They know what it means to captivate an audience.
[Music]
No, bro, not if I blow my own back out first. Do you think this beautiful caveman, who looks like an overgrown hobbit, do you think he'd actually stop for a second and be like, "Maybe I cursed him when I said he's going to die"?
Our next one, Michelle Khare. During the weigh-in, Michelle, we know, is going to be at 120. That's showing off the guns. I'm weighing in 120 pounds. Michelle is going to be fighting Andrea Botez. We'll get to see if Andrea comes in at 129. That's the plan. If not, she's going to have to cut some weight. 126 pounds.
Michelle, I got something for you. Come on, for the face-off. Oh, I hope you're ready to get knocked out by a little girl.
Guys, thank you so much for joining us today. We cannot wait to have an absolutely amazing set of fights tomorrow night. So again, thank you guys all for coming in person. Thank you guys all for watching at home, and we will see you all tomorrow night.
We got amazing access to this wonderful gym in St. Petersburg via Ian and Anisa. We're going to get in our last workout before the fight. Don't tell Andrea, but I've been having some issues with my ankle. I rolled it when we were sparring one day. All right, good, I think. So we wanted to do both feet so that no one thinks, "Hey, one ankle's worse than the other." So we taped up both feet.
I also got my fight braids done. I figured it was a good idea to practice in it before performing in it. So we're going to just kind of be fine-tuning and testing all the little pieces.
As we go to the gym and we're training, we're going to have James, Tony, myself there, and I'll be leading that session. Good. Circle right. Nice. I look up to Tony as a trainer and as a boxer a lot, and so I'm really excited for him to kind of see what we've been working on. It feels as if all of those rounds, all of that work, all that homework that we put in, he's going to understand that she's been in good hands.
Good. Yes. Lovely. All eyes are going to be on, and to kind of see and hear that chatter in the background, it's got to be a great feeling as a fighter. Your footwork's insane. Yeah, she's faster. To go into a pro fighter gym and for all those coaches to take note, I'm like, "Yeah, this girl can scrap."
Things moving, a lot of things happening right now. A lot of peripheral stuff happens. Good, stay focused, right? It's going to be just like this. Yeah.
When you're cornering someone, you are not a safety net, but you are a sense of security and safety for them. You're that voice that they've been listening to. I've never cornered anybody before, but now I'm cornering Michelle on fight night. Definitely not nervous, but a little anxious.
After seeing that, I mean, I wasn't worried before, but after seeing that session there, we're good. Yeah, we are. We're good, yeah.
So Tony's commentating for the fights, and it's just going to be James, myself, and Michelle in that corner. Don't have the comfort of having an Olympian in the corner with us. We got to get the job done. A lot of people think that boxing is a one-on-one, just solo sport, but it is far from that. You really need a strong team.
We're all there wearing T-shirts that support Michelle and support what we're out there to do. So we partnered with our friends at Yes Theory and Seek Discomfort to produce our first-ever apparel line. Damn, these look sick. I've always believed that Challenge Accepted and Yes Theory were two brands cut from the same cloth, and now we are literally. And then I think I'm going to have our coaches wear these in the corner. That would be amazing.
In the fight, when Michelle comes to the corner and she sees us in those T-shirts and in those hats, she knows, "Hey, my team's here." I think there's going to be a lot of comfort for her in that.
What has been the most unexpectedly challenging part about this? Getting used to getting hit in the head. It's very bizarre. That for me was my seeking discomfort in all of this, and to find that inner warrior within myself.
This episode took over a year and a half of our team's efforts to bring to life, and we explicitly chose to not have a sponsor in this video. Therefore, we have decided to make all of the Challenge Accepted apparel that you see in this video, including these limited-edition custom hand wraps, available to you. The Seek Discomfort icon is a lightning bolt, and the Challenge Accepted icon is a star, which is hidden in the A. And so we put them next to each other on some of our favorite pieces of the collection. If you are interested in being in our corner, the best way you can support us is by checking out the apparel with the link in the description.
She's going to take a beating from you. Listen, I'm not a meteorologist, but that might be the weather outside. Oh, oh.
That is right, ladies and gentlemen. We are back once again in beautiful, sunny Tampa, Florida, from the Amalie Arena here for Creator Clash number two.
Backstage prior to the fight, it's chaos.
[Music]
There's so much happening, so many different people. Got superheroes and Avengers, and you got mariachi bands. Just sensory overload. But we knew we had to stay focused. We can't get distracted. You can't let all these different things going on distract you from what you're there to do, and that's to win a fight.
[Music]
It is the legendary boxer, now coach himself, Box 'N Burn's finest, Tony Jeffries. Tony, how you doing, man? Mate, I'm so excited to be here. Like you mentioned, the energy in this room is electric. Just look at this arena. Yeah, I can't believe it. I boxed in the semifinals of the Olympic Games, and it was nothing like this. That just tells you how big—
Right here. Can't tell you how much this means to these people.
[Applause]
This is a brawl. You got to avoid that.
Oh, you can't help but hear the audience. I could sense Michelle was getting kind of nervous, and I knew, okay, I got to keep her calm. I got to keep her relaxed. And you won't be in this position. She will be. Before we wrap up, before we change or anything, I want to get Michelle out there and make sure that she sees the audience and just kind of gets those little bit of nerves out.
[Applause] [Music]
Not that bad, right? Not that bad. All good things.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
Already you see the feints of the jabs from Haley. Comes out forward, nice right hand from Marisha. Now we're trading a little bit here. There is the bell. What a finish.
By unanimous decision, Haley Sharpe. Haley Sharpe is your winner, and she is now standing by with our in-ring interviewer, too.
[Music]
No, let me ask you this. Do you want to continue this 12-week program, or do you want to stop and quit? No, I want to go. Of course you do. True fighter, warrior. Of course you do. So many people would stop now, would quit. So many people would have curled up after they got hit in the face. I knew you've got it in you. You've got it in here to be great, and you will be great. All right, nice.
We're going to win. Easy work.
Andrea Botez going off the gun. Her opponent about to make her way in, Michelle Khare.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause]
Introducing first, fighting out of the blue corner, she's YouTube's daredevil, Michelle.
And her opponent, fighting in the red corner, Andrea Botez.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause]
I like it. Come on, Michelle. Look at her face. The word of this moment is intense. Have some fun. Show them what you're about. Let's go. It is time, gentlemen. Look at the intensity on both ladies' faces. Round one, here we go.
[Applause]
Michelle bouncing on that lead foot. Look at the turn. This is an experience where I'm seeing right now. Nice jab from Michelle. Yeah, Michelle needs to be moving to her left here from Andrea's right hand. Combination there for Michelle.
Off that lead foot, turning angles, like Tony said, moving away from the power hand here. Andrea's in a fight here, and she's handling an onslaught right now. How do you turn the tide on something like that? I'm not sure. To my little smooth brain, I can't say for sure. Michelle looks like a very experienced fighter, and look at that, Andrea starts to cut the ring off a bit versus chasing.
Charlie, I think it goes without a doubt by saying this might be our most tactical fight of the night so far. It's looking that way. Both fighters, honestly. That was a big right hand, probably the biggest shot she's thrown on the night. Just missed with that. Hand on the break there for Michelle.
A great first round. Amazing, amazing. Great job. Great. Stay disciplined. No problems, right? Great job. Couple times, all right, stay disciplined. In the clinch, she's going to work. Don't push up. Step back and look for that shot. She's dropping her hands when you step back. Let's go, champ.
Going into round two, we're going to see more physical warfare from both ladies. A great fight so far. Let's see what happens next.
Michelle's that right hand, she's gone to it a couple times now. Maybe starting to get a bit repetitive. You want to start setting up a little better. Yeah, so it's just swinging on things. She is letting it fly. Oh.
[Applause]
Andrea trying to stay in the middle of the ring here, not give up that pressure, because this is what happens when she does. Chris, she's not intimidated by this dude.
Beautiful footwork there for Michelle to alleviate some pressure and then turns over the right hand out of it. Tony, Andrea is either one shot or following in with a couple. Last couple of seconds here, round number two.
Foreign. [Applause]
[Music]
Close fight through two rounds. Here we go with round number three. All right.
Jab, though, Andrea, she answers back. A little blood seeping out of the nose here from Michelle. Michelle didn't know it at the time, but that exchange broke her nose. Nose bleeding, nose is bleeding. She stepped back, kind of wiped the nose a little bit. I could just see the look on Michelle's face. Beast mode was activated.
[Music]
All right. Rolls with it, but you are seeing a little bit of swelling on that left eye of Andrea Botez. Eats another jab and another right hand, and Andrea feels that one. You can see immediately, Charlie, she put that glove up to see, "Did I get hit by that? Is that really what just happened?"
Around that same here in the ring together, we're seeing a beautiful fight. Right hand there for Michelle knocks Andrea off balance. Unbelievable. Her corner encourages her to come forward and follow up on that. Tony, it looks like that's where the openings will be. A very well-matched fight, I'm sure you'd agree. Absolutely.
Last couple seconds here, round number three, and a right hand to the body to end the round there from Michelle Khare. Gentlemen, let's listen in to the corner of Andrea Botez here.
Try it out.
Now you're longer, you're stronger. You've worked way harder. This is your time to take over. We need these rounds. Tony, I got to say something here.
Right hand. Well, that's the right hand that's done the most damage in the fight. If you heard him say this in the end of that instruction, "We need this round," they obviously feel like Andrea might be down a couple of rounds here.
Whoa, nice. Both ladies jab, and Andrea starting to find a home for it there, but a right hand sneaks in for Michelle, left hand behind it as well. It's been a very high-paced fight. They're feeling the effects of this five-round action. Nice counter there from Andrea Botez. Andrea having success today, the most success she's had in the fight so far. Oh, nice jab by Michelle. Yeah, Michelle gets one through. So you can punctuate this round.
[Applause]
Three, three. Set it up. Not everything's got to be a huge shot. Set it up, doubles and triples. Right, one more set. Breathe. Is it right here? You're doing great, Michelle. Let's go ahead.
This is where our winners will be made, this fifth and final round. Who's got what's left in the tank? And both girls coming out like an absolute firecracker here, round five. Where did that energy come from? Right here, beautiful right.
Andrea keeping the lights on after that is just still impressive, though. My goodness. Oh, another jab there from Andrea that lands. Forth we go, highly contested. Right-hand shot there from Michelle. My God, Michelle is the Grim Reaper out here, landing big shots. One just waves by her face again. Oh, another right hand for Michelle. 25 seconds left. Can Andrea turn the tide? She'll need a knockdown in order to even make this one close. Shot down the pipe, continuing to work that jab. Andrea comes forward, eats another jab for it. Shots to the body. There's 10 seconds. Yeah, I think that's going to be all she wrote there. Big shot to end the fight. Wow, what a matchup and what a finish.
What a fight. Look at that smile on the picture. What are you talking about? Amazing.
[Music]
Right there. Good job, Michelle. Hey, hands up. Get your hands up. Michelle Khare might be the most technically skilled female influencer fighter we've seen in the entirety of the influencer boxing scene. I would be very comfortable saying that. Yeah, we are going to now get our official decision from—
Ladies and gentlemen. Foreign. Scores the fight 49–46. Braddan Jackson scores the fight 49–46. James O'Connor scored the fight 49–46. Your winner by unanimous decision, Michelle.
[Applause] [Music]
I am here with your winner, Michelle Khare. Michelle, you had more combos than McDonald's out there. Tell us, what was your strategy going into this fight?
But first, I want to say a huge hand to Andrea because she was amazing, and I'm so honored because of Ian and Anisa to be the last female fight. Hey, Tony, I did this for you!
Let's give it up for your winner, Michelle Khare!
What a win for Michelle Khare. Tony, talk to me, man. That one was emotion-filled. She got it done.
Yeah, absolutely. So proud of Michelle and the work she put in.
And there she is. What a win for Michelle Khare.
Oh, God.
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
I'm super proud of what you've done.
[Music]
So much that wasn't me.
If you want me some money.
So are you serious? Yeah.
[Applause]
You are so amazing. You are so proud of yourself.
[Applause]
[Music]
Thank you.
Surprise!
[Music]
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