Video summary
In this episode of Creator Clash 2, Michelle Khare reflects on her grueling preparation to face chess grandmaster Andrea Botez in a boxing match that defied traditional weight and height classifications. Standing at just 5'2", Khare faced an opponent who was both taller (5'6") and heavier by approximately 18 pounds when they first discussed the fight, yet she viewed these discrepancies as manageable obstacles rather than insurmountable barriers. Her training regimen intensified significantly after a verbal pact with Botez to prepare for the event, evolving into a rigorous schedule of six days a week featuring two-a-day workouts that included strength conditioning, cardio sprints, and sparring sessions. Khare describes this period as her most physically demanding experience since being a professional athlete, noting that she sparred roughly 30 times in an abbreviated eight-to-ten-week camp compared to other fighters who had months of preparation time. The physical toll was compounded by strict dietary management involving a private chef named Chef Bernardy, which cost between $150 and $300 weekly but allowed Khare to maintain precise calorie and macro counts without the mental load of meal planning. This intense focus on nutrition and exercise also served as a therapeutic tool for her mental health; she explains how fixing her physical habits helped alleviate feelings of depression and restored motivation, echoing an Andrew Tate quote about getting a six-pack to fix sadness. Khare contrasts this with her previous experiences in chess boxing against Botez's team member Deena, noting that while the breaks between rounds were longer due to chess matches, the current fight required sustained high-intensity output every three minutes without such mental respites. Beyond the physical preparation, the podcast delves into personal anecdotes regarding Khare’s wedding and her philosophy on comfort zones. She details how she planned an entire week-long wedding in just five days by batching vendor meetings and website creation to avoid stress, a stark contrast to traditional planning processes that often lead to burnout. The conversation also touches upon Graham's reluctance to step out of his comfort zone with activities like skydiving or selling tickets for his own wedding; Khare argues that while fear is natural, avoiding challenges one desires before dying can limit life experiences. She suggests that what feels easy for someone else might be a significant challenge if it lacks perceived benefit, using her own willingness to endure physical pain versus Graham's preference for stability as an example of differing value systems regarding discomfort and growth. Looking ahead, Khare expresses excitement about future projects, including potential videos involving Formula 1 pit crews or training with the Secret Service, though she acknowledges that not every high-impact video requires a year-long production cycle. She emphasizes the importance of mental fortitude during fights, advising against watching other bouts beforehand to avoid anxiety over injuries sustained by previous fighters like Haley and Michael Reeves. Instead, she recommends using headphones to zone out or visualize specific scenarios, such as getting hit in the face but recovering immediately, to maintain focus when adrenaline surges. The episode concludes with Khare hoping that her upcoming match will be a victory not just for herself, but also an opportunity to explore new types of challenges and continue pushing boundaries beyond physical feats into mental resilience.
Read the full video transcript
I'm 5'2, and she's 5'6. I'm getting hit
in the face. That didn't go the way I
wanted it to be. I have to get back up.
Michelle Khare is known for her
unbelievable challenges, where she's
trained for NASA, the Secret Service,
SWAT, and FBI Academy, 911 dispatch, and
becoming a chess grandmaster among
dozens of others. But today, she's
undertaking her most difficult challenge
yet, fighting the chess extraordinaire
Andrea Botez in Creator Clash's boxing
event.
Today, you'll be getting an exclusive
behind-the-scenes
I have never trained harder for any
video, any project I have gotten to when
I was a professional athlete.
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Welcome back to the Ice Coffee Hour. My
name is Michelle, and you are watching
this hopefully after I win Creator
Clash.
Ooh.
Okay, so what prompted this? This is why
we wanted to bring you back on. Talk
about the fight. So, you're fighting
Andrea Botez, right?
Yes.
Yeah. Chess expert Andrea Botez.
Yeah. Thought she's taller. Like, how
How tall are you? I'm 5'2, and she's
5'6.
Is that How is that a fair fight? Well,
you know,
I don't think there really is any way
for it any fight to be fully fair,
right? You know, like someone is always
going to be at an advantage in some
capacity. I have my athletic background.
She has the genetic advantage of height
and weight. But I've been training my
ass off, and I've been sparring people
who, I guess I can say this now because
it's after the fight.
Mhm.
Every person I have sparred is at least
6 in taller than me and 30 lb heavier
than me. I have not sparred anyone who's
actually my height and weight.
Is that on purpose to prepare?
to be. Yeah. Aw. So, the one thing I
didn't realize is also no one is short
enough.
I my gym, like literally everybody's
taller.
You
You should have fought Michael Reeves.
That would be insane for the video.
Don't Don't fight I would be the first
one to fight.
You just You just win. You just win
automatically.
Honestly, coming off a win last night,
hopefully,
Michael, you're next.
He would He would honestly be perfect.
He'd be a great sparring partner. I
would love Honestly, like last year for
Creator Clash 1, I was always joking
like, I want to fight Graham. Really?
Graham, would you fight
god, no, I wouldn't. Why not, Graham? I
just wouldn't do it. I never want to
fight anyone again.
Okay. I respect that.
I'm a one-and-done. That was it. That
That is it. But I also think like for
what we're doing, it's such a narrow
bull's-eye. Like, I need to find a
female influencer with a following who
also has like comparable boxing
experience and like within the height
and weight realm. Like, that is such a
narrow target to hit. And at some point,
I just sort of realized like if I really
want to do a boxing match in like the
influencer boxing space, I'm going to
have to compromise somewhere, and
ideally, I wanted to find someone like
115, 120 with all of those same specs,
but
you know, I I I think like life gives
you obstacles that just aren't going to
be perfect at the right time or the
moment that you want them. And to me,
when this happened, I was like, this is
my opportunity. I just have to do it.
Yeah. And as soon as you saw Creator
Clash 1, did you know you wanted to
participate in the second? Well, I
actually wanted I I was actually wanting
to participate in the first one. Really?
Like, I heard basically So, it was
really coincidental because I wanted to
do an episode of Challenge Accepted
where I trained like a professional
boxer and um, you know, enter a fight
cuz I was like, how hard could it be to
get in one of these influencer things?
Everybody's doing it. And so, I
connected with Tony Jeffries, who is an
Olympic bronze medalist. He owns a gym
here in Los Angeles, and we started
training, and he's like, you know,
there's this event coming up in a couple
months that I didn't know about. It
wasn't even announced yet, Creator
Clash.
And we sort of had this like mini goal
of like, maybe if we train, someone will
appear, and you could get in. It didn't
happen, and so like, basically,
um, from there, like, when you don't
have an opponent, you can only do so
much. Like, if you don't have an
opponent and a confirmed fight, you're
not going to hard spar. You're not going
to do two-a-days. So like, yes, we were
training and training for the hope of
something coming through, whether it's
Creator Clash or another promoted event,
but it didn't. So then, at a certain
point, I was like, this is a lot of time
and money and
I got to stop. So, after, you know,
several weeks of that, I sort of just
stopped and moved on because trying to
find an opponent was such an ordeal. Who
is a perfect opponent for you?
Who? Yeah.
Like, height and weight?
No, like what influencer, celebrity, or
someone that you picked out. For
example, Michael Reeves says he always
wanted to fight Gary V. That's like his
thing. He wants to take on Gary V cuz it
would be funny.
Exactly. For Graham, it was Michael. Oh
my god. It was. Yeah. Um, hm.
You know, I actually haven't like
thought in that capacity of like who
would be
the perfect opponent. Um
I mean, I think there are all They're
always people who you want to fight that
are
Are they worthy of of a fight?
Um, yeah, I mean, I was thinking of more
to from like who's my height and weight
and and that kind of perspective cuz the
the pool is already so narrow, I think.
Um Belle Delphine. Belle Delphine would
be great.
Yeah. Yeah, that would be crazy. That
would break the internet. Belle
Delphine.
That would be nuts. Yeah, cuz she's
Yeah, I think she's like 5'5, right? I
have no idea.
Yeah, something like that. Yeah, a
little bit taller. Yeah.
Um, yeah, so I mean, we did that
for the last like
spring, and then Creator Clash happened,
and I was like, I just don't think this
is going to happen. So, I Did you apply,
or what was that process like the first
time? You wanted to get into it, or was
it
sort of like
you know, it was so close to the event.
I'm We're talking like
2 months out from the event
Oh, got it. Yeah. type of situation. And
Ian and Anisa knew Tony because, you
know, they did a lot of like press
events at the gym I train at.
And so, I met them. We trained together.
And I think it was it's like a situation
of like, this is literally happening in
8 weeks.
Everybody is confirmed, but maybe next
year. So, I stopped, and then I moved on
to do like other things like I
the other videos we had planned, like
running a marathon in the desert and
training with Secret Service and stuff.
So, I wasn't like actually doing
really any boxing of any kind. And then
when the chess boxing event happened in
December, um, I saw Andrea's fight
against Deena, and I thought it was
amazing. I mean, it was the most viewed
section of the entire stream, the
women's event. Um
And they went hard, too. I mean, they
went
like harder than the guys did, I feel.
Besides Dad, Dad just went like
Dad went ballistic.
So, besides that, And of course, you
know, a big highlight of last year was
Haley versus me.
Yes. It's so exciting, um, amazing to
watch. And so, after the chess boxing
thing, I was like, hm,
we're like not perfect height and
weight, but I wonder if she'd be into
this. So, I actually called her. Hm.
Like, the week after her fight. It is
when I
When we're talking on the phone, she was
coming out of a boxing class. This was
like 3 days after her fight. She was
like, I just got out of boxing class.
Oh my god.
not scare you, the fact that she like
just like did boxing and then goes to a
boxing class right after?
She did her full fight. Fought.
And then,
you know, coming right into CC2, of
course, that's something I take into
consideration. Yeah. Um, but I mean, it
was such an interesting conversation
because like at that time, there was an
even bigger weight difference between
us.
Um, probably like
in our original call, I think we were at
It It was a pretty big weight
difference, like 15, 18 lb. Mhm. And we
didn't have anything confirmed at that
point. We were just kind of like,
could we potentially work towards being
opponents for each other
and see what happens?
Um, and she had also tweeted at Creator
Clash, and I was like, you know, maybe
maybe there's space for us in the event
this year. It's 4 months out this time,
not 2 months out. Let's see what
happens. And at that point, it was a no
if from from Creator Clash. It was like,
we have too many fights. They're all
full.
Um
But Andrea and I were hopeful. So, we
made this like
verbal pact
All right. Yeah.
let's just let's just like kind of start
training and,
you know, we'll be like kind of ready.
Not fight camp. Not fight camp, but
like, you know, obviously, she's going
to boxing class two days, you know, a
few days after her fight, which is
crazy.
Yeah. Um
And
you know, I was like, okay, I'll I'll
call up Tony. I'll call up some people
and see if I can just start going a
couple times a week
again. And this is me coming out of a,
you know, pretty deconditioned state cuz
my wedding was in October and you know,
as you're preparing for yours, like it
is extremely time-consuming, it's
stressful, especially like the month
prior and then the month after I felt
like I was recovering. Like I had not
been exercising Mhm. at all. Sure. And
even though we're releasing videos of me
at Secret Service, whatever, those were
filmed way earlier in the year. Mhm. Um
and so I was like, okay, I'll I'll start
going to boxing a couple times a week.
And then, you know, when we heard about
um
I did a thing and his
um injury
was when we were like, "Oh my god, it's
go time. We can, you know, Anisa called
us and was like, do you want to do
this?"
And we were both like,
"Holy [ __ ] I guess so."
Um and so
it was
it was a it was a special opportunity,
still last minute. I mean, we found out
about that
um prior to the public announcement, but
like I want to say that our fight camp
like when we officially were like,
"Let's do this." It's it was probably
like 8 to 10 weeks prior to this event.
Wow.
Which is still, compared to like all the
other Creator Clash athletes,
they, you know, some of them found out
the night of CC1. Like, "Hey, you want
to do this next year? Start training."
So, they've had a year, they've had 9
months. Um and obviously like she and I
have
unique and bizarre like
forthcomings with boxing, her with chess
boxing and mine with like this like
little thing I did with Tony last year.
Um but not preparing either of us for
like a real boxing fight. I thought the
che- chess boxing was like pretty real
though. I know like taking a break and
like did she win? I can't remember if
she won that one.
technically on the night they gave it to
Dina because she won via chess, but then
later, like
two days after they're like, "Well,
Andrea pretty much won by knockout." So,
I think they technically won.
right. Um yeah, I mean, the chess boxing
stuff was extremely intense. However,
it's it's different training, right? Cuz
when you're doing chess boxing, the
breaks between each round of boxing are
significantly longer cuz you're
playing chess, you know, the table's got
to come down from the sky and you sit
there, you play the chess, then you put
the headgear back on. It's probably like
a good 5, 6 minutes physical rest break.
Obviously, your mind is going a million
miles an hour.
Right. Chess, which I can't do. I'm
never going to chess box Andrea. Um but
that's a different type of training from
like going all out for 2 minutes, 1
minute rest, then back in, you know,
like it is
for our fight. Wow. So, how has your
training been the past 8 or so weeks?
It has been absolutely
insane. I have never trained harder for
any video, any project, anything in my
life. I mean, this is the closest I have
gotten to when I was a professional
athlete, the level of training and
commitment and time. And what does that
look like for you?
Well, I guess I can share now.
share it now, yeah.
I mean, for me
when when we got the full green light,
it immediately was 6 days a week, 2
hours a day, if not two-a-days. Explain
two-a-days for us. Okay, so a two-a-day
means you're you're going twice a day to
work out.
So, uh typically that means like early
in the morning you go and you do uh
strength and conditioning and then maybe
in the afternoon you do boxing or
sparring, but the the physical benefit,
and I'm not a scientist here, but the
physical benefit from my understanding
and in my background in athletics is
that you are training your body to, you
know, have to recover extremely quickly
and go right back into a workout. Um and
it can actually have like even more
benefit than doing 2 hours like
back-to-back, splitting it up. There
there are certain situations that that
it makes sense to do that, but it's like
putting your body in that state of
agitation more frequently with a with a
lesser rest period of,
Mhm. you know, 8 to 10 hours rather than
24 hours. Got it. And so, what do your
workouts look like? So, my workouts are
I guess there are
four different types of workouts. There
is, you know, your classic boxing mitt
work, like what you see in all the Rocky
and Creed movies. Then there is cardio,
so like get on a treadmill, run sprints.
Then there's strength and conditioning,
which is
lifting weights, um throwing heavy
things around, pull-ups, push-ups, um
and then there's also recovery workouts,
which is like, "What is a recovery
workout?" That's like spending an hour
um
like doing stretching, uh foam rolling,
visualization has been a huge component
of this for me. Like literally, I'll
spend 30 minutes listening
in my headphones, full-on crowd
like sound effects
Really?
blasting
with a blindfold on.
And then I visualize, "This is what it's
going to feel like when they say, 'Hey,
you're next.'
You're getting your hands wrapped.
You go into the tunnel.
The walkout song starts.
The walkout begins. Wow.
for the first time.
The bell goes off.
Like every moment of that
I don't like that. I don't like that. I
don't like that.
also visualizing like
I'm getting hit in the face. That didn't
go the way I wanted it to be. I have to
get back up. You know, like you
visualize the good and the bad moments.
And like that's something I didn't
really do as much um in my com-
competitive athletic background as a
cyclist, but for this it's so much
it's everything, I feel. Grim says that
when he entered the ring, like all of
the stuff that he trained for, all of
the stuff he studied and prepared for
just completely left his mind as soon as
he walked in the ring.
Right. Yep. So, part of me feels like
you can spend all this time visualizing
and stuff. All of that stuff helps, but
most important is
is, you know, that the boxing part. Like
No, I didn't I didn't do any of the the
mental stuff. I was just like block it
out. Wow.
Does it almost feel like a blur?
Sometimes. Or like a blackout in a way?
Kind of.
Wow.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I would say that the
crowd and the adrenaline are two things
that you can try to get close to. I
mean, like for example, I guess I can
say this now. When I'm sparring, Mhm.
they on the on like the overhead speaker
system blast crowd sound effects
extremely loud to the point like our
coach in the corner is screaming at the
top of his lungs to try and communicate,
"Try this, try this." So, to try and
simulate that. But also like I know I'm
in the safety of the gym. I You know
what I mean? Like it's not the same as
like you're walking out and you see
people cheering for you, see some people
booing for you. Like those sounds of
like
hearing someone else's name cheered when
you're getting your ass kicked. Like you
can't. You can't. And replicate that.
Yeah, I don't want to say it was tough
for me, but definitely I think the crowd
favored Michael by like cuz it's
Michael. Like I would be rooting for
Michael.
But it's when when like you get that
punch and everyone's like, "Woah!
Michael!" Like it it's it's tough to
overcome that too, like mentally cuz you
don't like you kind of hear it and it
seeps into your mind, but you don't
really focus on it, but it's there.
Yeah.
For sure. And I'm prepared for that,
too. I mean, Andrea's audience is huge.
Mhm. It's a streaming audience. They're
extremely engaged. I'm sure she has
plenty of
friends, social media people who are
coming to support her as well.
Yeah. Um yeah, it's it's going to be
tough. Yeah.
And I would say at this point, like I am
I'm extremely confident in the physical
ability, the training, the conditioning,
all of that, but that one variable I
think will be
the unexpected for everybody that night.
What's it like for you to spar?
Sparring? Yeah.
How many how many times have you
sparred? Like what's what's that process
like? Like walk us through from the
beginning to like the most recent.
if I had to count, I'm sparring three
times a week. Wow.
times
eight, 10 weeks.
No way.
30 times? I don't even know.
That's a lot. Yeah. Michael sparred like
12. And I was like four. Wow. Oh my god.
Yeah, I mean, that's really that's
really impressive for having only four
times spar to get in there and do that.
Yeah, well,
I don't know. I don't know about that,
but I think people this time are taking
it way seriously, way more seriously
because the first time we had no idea
what to expect and we were just like,
"Ah, might be a bit of a
whatever." But this time I think people
are looking back and and seeing how
seriously they took it and like I got to
one-up that now. Absolutely. I mean, the
first time I sparred, and this is
covered in the video that that I'll be
releasing, I had a panic attack, fully.
Like getting hit in the face and like
you forget everything. I I don't think
people get that like the when when
you're working on the mitts, translating
that across the bridge to sparring is a
journey in and of itself. Like you could
literally train the same thing on mitts
as as maybe you experienced a billion
times and then to apply it in sparring
can take weeks. Yeah. You know, it's
like when you're in there under the
pressure of like I'm not just like
hitting clean mitts with my trainer
because now there's someone else's arms
in my face, in my eyes, and coming back
at me at the same time. Like so many
other variables
in when you're not in a controlled
environment and working through that. Um
but you know, I feel fortunate that that
happened to me pretty early on
and
I adjusted and worked through it. So,
now sparring, I feel at this point is
more like
it's a extremely intense workout and
nothing compares to it.
Yeah. Um
but I don't have the like
fear in that capacity.
Really? Have you gotten hurt?
Mhm. Throughout the past
Yeah, again, I'm not going to share any
of this
before the fight cuz yeah, it's been
strong. I'm perfect.
It it's not been perfect in any
capacity. I have um throughout the past
10 weeks, I everyone in our office had
this
crazy ass flu.
So,
I was sick for a week.
Mhm.
Um I have a few years ago I was in a car
accident and so I have this recurring
neck like nerve pinch thing where like I
get searing pain all down my spine.
Oh, jeez.
It's fine.
Yeah.
But that happened to me during one of
the sparrings. It reactivated that.
Didn't post any of that. This is the
reality of this.
Yeah. What are we posting? Me and Andrea
are like at the gym, like everything's
going awesome. That's what you're
posting and that's not fully the
reality. Um so I had to go to PT for
that. I rolled my ankle sparring.
Um
Yeah, I mean it's crazy. But that's part
of it, you know? It's part of it and
then also playing the poker face of
nothing's wrong.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was a big one for me. Every
time I was tired it's like, "No, you're
not going to do that. You're going to be
like getting up and like doing the doing
the jumps a little bit."
Yeah. Like you can't mentally just sit
down or put your arms on the uh on the
ropes because then it's like it's going
to make you more tired.
The day that I rolled my ankle, it was
like round two of sparring and I think
we had six rounds that day.
They're like, "You keep going cuz if
this happens in the fight you need to
work through that." and I finished the
whole thing.
And then I went off.
Couldn't that just make it worse though?
Like that might prevent you from like
sparring the next day.
Correct. Um but I I feel like I'm so
like at this point athletically in tune
with my body, I would have known. But
like I was like, "I can do this." Yeah.
Um but I mean the recovery part is a
whole thing. Like I sit in an ice bath
every single day.
I sit in a sauna.
Hot tub. Like it's it's a full thing.
Yeah. I mean
Oh my gosh. So this is like a full-time
job almost. Cuz this is like 2 hours of
of exercising and probably another hour
of like visual a visualization,
baths, whatever. So it's like and maybe
now we're getting ready for it. So
that's like 4 hours a day. It's a lot.
Yeah.
And then the drive to and from the gym.
And then when you get back you got to
shower. It's it's extremely
time-consuming. And so I feel really
fortunate cuz we just hired a head of
operations for our channel.
So that allowed me to
like give a lot of responsibility to
him.
Mhm.
Like I literally could not do this
without that hire and we also hired a
second editor. So like
we had a team meeting at the beginning
of all of this
Mhm. basically saying like this is what
Michelle's life is going to be like for
the next 8 weeks and this is how we as a
team are going to adapt to it and
support and what responsibilities still
are mine versus not. Mhm. And that was
extremely helpful. That's cool. Yeah.
What's something that happened that was
unexpected in your experience of boxing
so far in like the 8 weeks and fighting
random people and putting your body
through this?
I guess and I'm I'm not just saying this
cuz like this is coming out the day
after. We'll see what happens.
Yeah.
It's interesting to me because at the
beginning of all of this, I was I was
transparently extremely concerned about
the height and weight difference.
Um I mean I've had to gain muscle and
she's had to come down.
Um and that is a variable that I don't
have control over.
Um but and so when we when we set out to
do this and like you're only going to be
sparring people that are at least 6
inches taller than you. Andrea's 4
inches taller. And they have a longer
reach. They're going to be at least 30
40 pounds heavier than you.
That was really hard. It's really hard
because like with that difference you
are fighting uphill constantly. You
could have perfect form and miss every
time just because of the difference in
the reach. Um you have to have even
better cardio because you're running
around the ring more. You're you know,
have you have to have way better head
movement um
when when you are a smaller shorter
fighter. And so that was a really big
hurdle for me to overcome. But at this
point I feel
really confident with it only because I
don't know what it's actually like to
spar somebody my actual height and
weight. Look at Mayweather and Logan
Paul though. When they fought, I mean
you saw a huge size difference. Like it
was massive. That was what like 10
inches? And like 30 40 pounds. Yeah, it
was nuts. But Mayweather was like you
could I believe he was kind of holding
back. Yeah, it was kind of almost like
holding back a little bit. I heard
though that I think Michael called it
the turtle
uh where you would crouch down and make
yourself lower. Yes.
Uh you have the advantage of being lower
to the ground. It's harder to hit. Yeah,
I hope so. I mean
she if she's crouching down, she's more
like eye level to you.
Yeah. If you're crouching down, she's
got to punch down.
Exactly.
I mean we've done a lot of work like
getting on the inside, body work, coming
off on an angle. That's like a lot of
what I've been training.
you'd have an advantage like get down
underneath and then do an uppercut. Cuz
she she couldn't she couldn't do that.
It's all you got to do. Get down, do the
crouch turtle, boom, come on up.
I'm just going to like duck and shoot
between her legs.
That's going to be my strategy. That
would be funny.
So let's hear some predictions.
Predictions? How do you think this is
going to go? Yeah. I'm pretty confident
I'm going to win. You're pretty
confident?
Yeah, I think so. Based off of just my
intuition, I think it's going to be not
even close. I think you're going to win.
Oh, well thank you.
You're welcome. I think biologically
much be eating my words.
We very well could be. You guys are
going to make a viral TikTok of me
saying, "I'm really confident I'm going
to win." It's going to hard cut to like
Bing bing bing. Yeah.
Oh gosh. I mean um
yeah, honestly at this point I think the
the nerves of the crowd and the events
leading up to Saturday are really the
the one variable I'm
most concerned for.
Yeah. Do you meditate?
I Yeah, I mean the visualization for me
is meditative.
Mhm. But this is a good I probably
should like download the app
or something.
I think you absolutely should. Yeah.
Yeah. Um but what's really cool is like
I feel that when I was actually like
assigned pro athlete,
I did not have any of the resources that
we have now when I am a content creator.
Like being able to hand things off to
other people. I mean as a as a female
athlete, you don't you're not paid like
that. You don't have the ability to
to do that cuz you're just
like the difference in pay is so vast
between male and female athletes that
like now I feel like I'm actually
getting to experience what it's like to
be
not a pro athlete but like I get some of
those luxuries by being a content
creator. We all do. I mean pretty much
everyone who's in Creator Clash, we have
a huge privilege of having people to to
support us. And we have like this really
bizarrely warm and welcoming environment
with Creator Clash which I have never
experienced in any other athletic
community. It's amazing. Mhm. We're like
we're all in a chat and everybody's
like, "You guys look great in training.
How's it going?" You know, like The
Discord group. Yeah, yeah.
I I have never experienced that in any
other athletic community. And so it it
really feels like an amazing
opportunity. And honestly, no matter
what happens, like I am extremely proud
of
of what
I'm extremely proud of first of all of
Andrea being willing to do this with me
so that there is another women's fight
on this card. Period. And I want
more
more people to feel inspired to take on
challenges whether it is against, you
know, me versus Andrea. I'm going up
against an opponent genetically
advantaged over me. I want people to
hopefully take away from that maybe I
can
attack this thing that I have been
scared to do before or maybe people see
someone like me or Andrea, a chess
player going in to do this. It's
I just hope that we can you know, follow
in the immense footsteps of people like
Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor who have
really paved a lot of way for for
women's athletics. And even though this
is a charity boxing event, just like
being there and being willing to do
this, I mean I really got to give it to
An- Andrea too that like both of us
agreed to do this on such short notice
is a crazy thing and I hope that
regardless of the outcome the
um of the fight that the outcome of the
event is one that is extremely positive
and inspiring. What's the scariest part
about it for you? Ooh.
Oh my god. I mean Andrea's hands.
His fists.
I think the scariest I think like my
biggest fear is going in there and then
feeling like I didn't give it my all in
the end. Or I let the crowd get to me.
Mhm. Or I saw, you know, her team in the
corner. I heard them saying things like,
"Michelle's tired. Go go go." You know,
like if I let those things get to me. To
me, that is going to be the biggest
failure. Not like the the win or the
loss, whatever. The biggest failure is
to like leave that ring and feel like,
"Shit.
I
I could have tried harder in that moment
and I didn't."
Mhm. What's interesting to me is I draw
the parallels between obviously your
YouTube series, the challenge accepted
where you go and do all of these crazy
things all the time. And then your
ability to hop into the ring at such
short notice. What do you think it is
within you that gives you the courage or
bravery or confidence it it may be to go
and do all of these things? I think it's
actually
Excuse me.
I think it's like a learned skill set of
how to approach an obstacle in such a
short amount of time. Because for me
like having done so many of these
challenges, like I know
day
week three probably going to feel this.
When I start self-doubting, okay, I know
this is part of the process. Whereas
like other people doing Creator Clash, I
feel like those might be newer
experiences, but in the same way you
guys can sit down and do a podcast
effortlessly, or like Graham can like
pick a stock and then make a million
dollars in a day or whatever. You know
what I mean?
Like those are learned skills.
Like those are learned skill sets. And
And for me, I think my competitive
advantage is just like the skill set of
putting myself in an uncomfortable
situation and knowing
all those like random cues are part of
the process.
So, is Challenge Accepted becoming less
challenging for you? No.
I'm about to get in the ring with Andrea
Botez. That's [ __ ] scary. Okay, but
how do you top that? Like you can't just
keep going down this rabbit hole doing
crazy
uncomfortable physical activities that
you're putting yourself through. Like
you said, it's a learned skill. And once
the muscle gets so strong, any new
challenge, physical activity, mental
activity, something like that, could
maybe become a little bit easier, right?
I think approaching
approaching the next one becomes easier,
but the process is is still extremely
hard.
I mean
It It It could um I guess what you mean
about like what does this mean for
future episodes? How do you Where do you
go from here? And to me it it it means
delving into parts of myself that are
less comfortable to explore, such as uh
mental challenges. Like when I did
ironically my chest Challenge Accepted,
that was actually the hardest one I
think I've ever done. I I honestly think
that was harder than boxing.
Um
and I I think it just offers
opportunities for us to explore other
types of challenges that exist in the
world all around us. And what about diet
for you? Oh, diet. Oh my god. Diet has
been a huge part of this. I know both
for me and Andrea, cuz Andrea's coming
down in weight. I'm having to
um you know, make weight at a certain
point by gaining. Um so yeah, we have
like a private chef that delivers meals
every three days. And they're all like
calorie, macro, carb counted, and I just
eat it and go to sleep. Really? Yeah.
How much is How much is that chef?
Mm.
That chef is probably $300 a week. It's
pretty expensive. It's not as bad
as bad as I thought.
No.
Yeah, when you account for like the
level of training that you're doing and
the the importance of that, yeah. I I
mean it's amazing. Highly recommend. Her
name is Chef Bernardy.
It's not bad. I mean if you consider
that you're not like Actually, wait,
hold on. I was accounting for both
myself and Garrett.
Oh, it's I guess it's like 150, 175 a
week.
That's not bad.
That's not bad at all. If you're not
going out to eat like no dinners and
stuff like that, it's not bad.
it to like if I got every meal on
Postmates, well lunch and dinner on
Postmates, it's cheaper than that. And
healthy, and I I don't have to think or
like Like for example, when I when I was
assigned athlete, I was sitting there
like cooking all my meals and like
putting stuff on a scale, measuring.
Yeah. To have that mental load off is so
great.
Really? Yeah.
I want to try that.
A chef? You want to try a chef?
No, it's it's that that sort of meal
plan. Cuz for me, besides all you can
eat sushi, I don't care about food. I
just kind of eat to feel like to feel
kind of hungry and
But like if I could just be like this is
just all I eat, these are the times, and
I just do it without thinking about it.
I I wouldn't mind it.
The not having to think
it's everything. Not having to cook
Yeah, I want to get down to like under
10% body fat. Like that that is my
that's my goal.
That's crazy. Abs. Six pack. Have you
had abs before? Once. Really?
Yeah, once.
Uh oh gosh, I'm sure I can I'm sure
man, I'm sure I'm I'm sure I could find
it somewhere. Yeah. But that was I was I
must have been like 25. 25? I was 25, so
it was in the like the best shape of my
life, but that's when I was doing
nothing but work and gym. And what were
you eating?
The pre-YouTube. Okay.
But I was spending an hour to an hour
and a half a day in the gym while also
eating really, really, really healthy.
Like I took it so seriously, I cut out
carbs. Like carbs for me were a big one.
The only carbs I'd have is uh oatmeal
before a workout. Oatmeal and honey. And
then everything else was just like
chicken.
really into nutrition.
At that point, yes.
How were you eating your chicken? Where
were you getting it from?
Uh I was about to say Trader Joe's. It
wouldn't be that.
Ralphs. Ralphs? You're just Were you
baking it? What were you doing?
No, it was like I think it was like that
I think it was like that pre-packaged
chicken.
Yeah, and then oh lots of eggs, too.
What? What do you do currently for food?
Do you order? Do you
Macy cooks for No, she cooks She cooks
maybe two to three times a week. The
other times, Chipotle.
Sushi.
Herbs and rye. Herbs and rye? Herbs and
rye.
I mean it's we're going out to eat way
more often. Because if we're home all
day, it's just like you want to get out
of the house. It's like the one thing we
could do every day together that I'm
looking forward to after finishing work
and like getting out of the house.
So
It's just
I like all you can eat sushi. That
that's for me the biggest perk, yeah.
For $30, it's such a good deal. And
Sushi Neko
10 Goku is the other one, but it's
smaller. This is in Vegas, yeah. $30 all
you can eat, yeah.
Oh yeah, well well our treat. $30 all
you can eat. I have a question. So, do
you think
during someone's life at some point they
should get a six pack? Cuz I heard this
quote. Now
Now, I heard Andrew Tate say it of all
people.
I am not
I am not ever one to quote
Someone reached out to him and they were
like sad or something. I saw it when I
had TikTok
3 months ago. You deleted TikTok? Yeah.
Deleted TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube
off I deleted TikTok. You deleted
TikTok? I did. Weeks ago, man.
Weeks ago.
Yeah, someone else does it, yeah.
Shout out to Josh. Thank you, Josh,
yeah. Instagram, too, is good to get rid
of if you can manage, you know. No, I do
a lot of networking on Instagram.
Okay. Anyways, he said something like
someone reached out, they were sad, and
they were like, "What do I do to fix my
my sadness or whatever?" And he's like,
"Get a six pack, then come back to me."
It was depression.
So, you know what I'm talking about.
I I kind of agree with it.
You agree that if someone is sad that
they should get to the point of getting
a six pack, and then if their sadness
has not yet been fixed, or at least not
fixed, but like improved to some
capacity, then you think it's Here's
what I think, and then I'll let you
share this. Um I think unless you have
like a strong chemical imbalance, in
which case whatever you do is not going
to fix it. Like going to the gym could
only make such a big difference. I feel
like a lot of people, not everybody. I I
think there are certainly cases where
it's warranted for medication. But I
think in a lot of cases people are down,
they're just not motivated. I think
going to the gym, getting that six pack
gives them one focus that all they have
to do is do that one thing, and and
having a goal that they hit is going to
give them so much momentum to hit the
next one and the next one. Then you get
that six, you know, upward success, like
a success spiral. So, I think that
helps.
So, I'm glad that I don't sound crazy,
because I actually kind of agree with
that to a certain amount as well,
because I was not taking care of my body
at all. And I was in like one of the
worst mental places of my entire life.
Like I'm not working out, I'm not
feeling good in my own skin. And then
all of a sudden I start taking care of
my nutrition, and I start working out,
and all of those sadness and ailments
and whatever, like they start not
disappearing, but definitely becoming
smaller and smaller. To the point where
like they're not even a big problem
anymore. So, it's kind of interesting.
Like you take care of yourself, you
know, you get a little bit of a six
pack. I don't have a six pack at all.
But
I feel good in my own skin and I'm
working out.
And it kind of like it kind of helped
it. Absolutely. I mean
we The longest relationship you have is
with your body. So
if you're not It's like a car. If you're
if you're not going to wash it or put
the right gasoline in it, it's not going
to function properly. If you don't get a
tune-up every now and then. I definitely
think like
what Whatever
I I I'm not going to agree with Andrew
Tate on anything, but like
you know, I understand the perspective
of
if you're if you're feeling mentally
down, maybe taking care of the physical
could help in that capacity, for sure.
And it's interesting cuz it's not only
just like feeling down, but also like
motivation feeling like other random,
obviously positive emotions. Like I was
not feeling motivated at all, and I was
trying so hard to force motivation on
myself, but I couldn't feel motivated.
But as soon as I fixed my like sleeping
habits, my diet, and my physical
exercise problem, then all of a sudden
motivation was easy to find.
Yes. It's like you can't necessarily
attack all of these other like
non-tangible things, such as being
motivated or inspired in life or
excited, right, and happy all the time.
You can't chase those things. I feel
like you have to chase the root problem,
which could sometimes be nutrition,
diet, and like water intake, and
exercise. And it also like releases
chemicals in your brain that that that
make you feel better and
you know, adrenaline, serotonin, all of
those things are really good for your
mental health, too.
Yeah, I've always found that I have more
energy when I work out. Yeah, not less.
Ironically, I feel like I was worried
when when I did this you know, training
for Creator Clash that a lot of business
stuff would get put on the back burner.
And ironically, like literally like 30
things that we've been waiting on for a
long time have just
come through the pipeline. Because when
I get home from training, I'm like bam
bam bam. I'm in the headspace of let's
go. And it's it's really interesting
once you like turn up the heat in one
area of your life, how everything else
sort of
rises to that, too. I agree. When I had
the most energy I've ever had in my
entire life and motivation, well not
motivation, but probably energy, was
when I was running cross country
competitively in high school. And I was
running like 12 miles at 9:00 a.m. on a
Saturday and then obviously be tired
from like, you know, 11:00 after the run
till 1:00, but then after 1:00 I'd have
so much energy for the rest of the day.
It's interesting. Uh what does your
husband think about all of this?
Oh he
I was like, I don't know if I should do
this and he's like, let's go. It's going
to be amazing. He's extremely
supportive. Um but then, you know, a
couple weeks in I was like, you got to
like how do you actually feel about
this? He's like, obviously I'm really
freaking nervous for you but I can't I'm
not going to say that. You need to be in
the head space of let's go. Um but he is
the
oh my god, most supportive partner,
creative collaborator,
business partner of all time. I mean, he
he's the one I'm like, I get home I'm
like, okay, it's noon and I need to get
on my computer. He's like, you need to
go lay down for a half hour.
Go.
And it it's it's really amazing. But he
is so excited. He's going to be like
he's going to be ringside.
Oh he's ringside?
of like cuz our production team is
coming to come to the video.
Okay. I'll be with them.
Like
sim like wherever the cameras are
allowed. Got it. Not in the corner.
Okay. He's got to be freaking out
internally though.
Probably.
Yeah. And he's putting on a good mask of
just like I you know what, I'm good.
Macy cuz I was sitting right next to her
in the first creator class and she was
like like a Chihuahua. You know how they
like shake uncontrollably? That's
literally how she was just like
I would I would
I would feel the same way. It's always
crazy
they're not going to do this at creator
clash but like in in pro fights when
they cut to the families
of the fighters. It's crazy. Yeah. I'd
be I'd be a mess. Like mental mentally,
yeah. I'd be so I used to be so worried.
Yeah. It's just like cuz you never know
like I always go for like that worst
case scenario.
God forbid like any if anything happens
it's like I would just feel so bad and
like I'm just nervous and like I get I
just get anxious for things like that.
Like anything that involves like getting
hurt or punched. Like even for me I was
like
I don't want to get like any sort of
damage at all. It's like not worth it.
Yeah and I felt like honestly it was a
blessing in disguise the first creator
clash didn't work out cuz I was before
you know, 6 months before my wedding and
one of the reasons why
even when I didn't have an opponent we
weren't going like full speed cuz
Tony was like
if you don't get a fight it's not worth
it and and your wedding is this year so
That makes sense. Black eye for the
wedding.
to have a Yeah. a good looking nose for
the wedding pictures. Yeah.
What was that like getting married and
you got a week to plan for the whole
thing? Yeah. So I mean
wed- the wedding stuff was was amazing.
It was such a special experience. I'm so
excited for you. And I I feel like
a lot of people approach what like
content creators approach weddings like
let's do 28 vlogs on the process and
you know, really get what we can out of
it and I was sort of like, I feel like
everybody's done vlogs and and whatnot
and so I wanted to do something that
would actually like if we're going to
film it, let's elevate the process. So I
had this crazy idea like what if we just
plan the entire thing in one week? Like
clear our schedules, forget this whole
like after work we're on the phone
trying to figure things out when we're
tired. Like just take a week Mhm. plan
the whole thing. We lined up all the
vendors and it was literally the best
thing ever.
Highly recommend to anybody getting
married Mhm. because
Monday to Friday it was done. And then
the rest of the engagement we were just
like chilling. It was so great. Mhm.
Every decision was done. We knew exactly
the budget for everything. Like we went
right from picking the florals to
picking the centerpieces so it was all
fresh in our heads.
And But how far in advance did that week
occur? The week occurred and then when
did you get married relative to that?
Um we filmed that I want to say in
February or March of last year and then
we got married in October. So we'd been
engaged We got engaged right before the
pandemic. And
throughout the pandemic we couldn't
really do anything and so we were
waiting like
for things to be
I I guess like available to us to do so.
Now I'm just curious because obviously
I'm totally ignorant to
you know, throwing a wedding. I don't
want to be that guy but I'm just
curious. I see that look. You knew
exactly where this is headed. Because
here's the thing. You pick a spot. You
get a nice picnic area. Yeah. You call
your friend that maybe is a part of of a
band or something like that. They come
along. Tell them some songs to play. You
get a DJ. Find one on Craigslist. You
get a florist of I I don't know. You get
a florist. Somebody that can supply
flowers. You call your local taco truck.
They come if you want to serve tacos. If
you don't, totally fine. I'm serving
tacos.
And then that's like and then you send
out the invitations.
How could it be a Monday through Friday
process? Like what do those hours look
like? Like our vendors reject you?
5 days?
I yes. Absolutely. If you're doing
everything. If you're like let's just
say like
you guys sit down to make your wedding
website for your guests. There's a
website? Yeah. You need a website for
people to RSVP to and to collect their
meal preferences and the registry for
people to buy you gifts if if you want
that and you you know, you need to have
like here are all the hotels and the
recommendations and for all the people
who are you know, spending money to fly
out to wherever.
Collecting all that. Just making the
website
it's like a 4-hour process of going on
you know,
the knot or whatever entering manually
every single person's name, address,
email, phone number, dietary
restrictions. Doing all like that's 4
hours. Then you know,
driving somewhere in LA to meet with a
florist. That's 2 hours just to pick the
flowers.
Oh you're like meeting them. Well, to
film it for sure. Oh sure. And we go to
you go to the flower flower shop and
you're like, I like this tulip and I
don't like that. Like that driving all
over the city, going to the place where
you rent chairs, sitting in all the
chairs, picking the chairs. It's time
consuming.
Wow. Okay, so you're sitting in the
chairs.
You know what it's like when people talk
about wedding details, this is why
people get stressed out. I wanted to
create environment like
let's just only focus on this and get it
done. That makes sense. I think just as
a person I'm a lot less like like I
don't have taste, you know? So I would
just I'd say to the
in any no other way to say it but I'd
call the florist and be like, okay, pick
out the flowers good for a wedding.
Really? Pick out chairs that are good
for the wedding. Well, it's a very guy
thing. It's a very guy thing to say.
that, they're going to be like, what do
you want? They're going to ask you
questions.
for comfy yet funky. You should just
give them a
budget. It's like, hey I want to spend X
amount. Just give me whatever this will
buy. Okay. But then the colors. Okay? So
like let's say they pick the flowers.
And it's like Okay, everything's white.
Then you have to communicate to all the
groomsmen, all the bridesmaids, your you
know, the wife like your outfit is
impacted by that if you care about those
things. You don't have to.
You don't have to. I feel like my wife
probably would, you know?
Yeah. I I think women grow up and they
have this vision of like having this
wedding and they think about it since
they're a kid and they want they want to
live up to that. That was the opposite
of me. Really?
I could not care less. I was like, I
just you know, marriage, what is it? I
don't know. Like I just I was I'm I've
always been so
career focused that I just don't care
and I was like, what is the point? It's
it's so much money. It's so much time
and everyone gets stressed out and it
seems really stupid. Um
and ironically Garrett was like, this is
going to be such a special opportunity
for us. Let's have fun and sure we'll
make some videos about it and see if
that helps cover the cost of it and
everything. So. So how much did the
wedding cost?
I'm not going to tell you how much it
cost but I can tell you let's say it
cost one gold coin.
Via the content we created, we not only
paid for that one gold coin but made two
more gold coins.
Wow.
for it three times over.
Yeah.
It was it worked.
Is that is that through sponsors or
discounts on the wedding because of
okay. Mhm. Okay, so Graham has this this
idea. Okay? He wants to sell tickets to
his wedding. What? To like a viewer or
somebody who wants to come to the
wedding.
Yeah.
Just like to viewers. So he wants to
have like a a viewers table or something
like that. I personally don't like the
idea. But Here's the here's the thing.
It's going to be the wedding cost got to
be like 30 grand, 35k, like something
like that all in for everything. That's
your budget is what you're saying. No
gosh, the budget initially was like I
wanted to do this for like 15 but very
quickly we realized you can't do that.
My my thought, I can't make a profit
from
a wedding doing like sponsors or selling
tickets to it. I couldn't do that. If I
were making videos about it with with a
sponsor in the video I could do it but
not like the wedding itself. I just
wouldn't feel right about monetizing
that.
that. Like this is my wedding video.
It's going to be three times the cost of
what it normally is. If you want it if
you want to be in my wedding video. I
don't I I don't want to monetize it
though. It's it's it's something for me
that it's not like an interest to like
film it and have to think about like
making a video on it. Absolutely. And
that's why like we sponsored the and
monetized two of the videos but like the
actual video of the wedding is like
there's copyrighted music. Like we were
like, this is
Martial arts. Yeah. But my idea with
tickets was to sell like really
expensive tickets but just make that go
towards charity. So it's like if it's
like 10k a ticket or something like
that. Cuz what we want to do instead of
gifts is is have everybody donate to an
animal shelter. Or like adopt an animal
or something like that instead. Yeah.
It'd be weird if it's like, "Hey guys, I
want pots and pans and like"
There's no There's nothing. It's just
claw at that point.
right there with you. We're like, we we
don't
I don't know what we You know, we're
I think you know, all of us at this
table are extremely privileged to be in
a different position than I think many
people getting married are. So, um
Yeah, I love that idea. But it might be
different if I could make a video about
the wedding and then write it off as a
business expense because because then I
could be like, well, this is a
production for YouTube, the channel.
I will say that that is definitely a
strategy to employ. Yeah, cuz cuz we
could have like a like a wedding
wedding.
You know, the marriage itself, but then
like, hey, this this is an event that we
are hosting for a YouTube video.
Everyone agrees to be on the YouTube
video.
Yeah. That's smart. Yeah. And then you
like don't have to pay some videographer
to make a wedding video. You just have
Alex do it.
You know, Alex, we need to post this
Imagine Alex with the 3:30 deadline. We
need to post
Then I hate this video review process.
I hate this thumbnail. The thumbnail
should be like Macy like running away
from the wedding and me like left at the
altar. It'd be like, it went horribly
wrong. Would you wear a hat that just
says public on it?
Flip it backwards when you go in for the
kiss. No, you wouldn't do it. I mean,
people do that. We didn't do anything. I
was like, this is
crazy.
I mean, people have like elements of
their weddings sponsored. For us, like
we were like
no brand is going to touch the the
picture. It's about the wedding.
Yeah. Yes. But like, sure, if you want
to pay premium for a mid roll in in this
like wedding planning video, Mhm. makes
sense.
Right before the kiss occurs.
Now I pronounce you husband and wife.
Imagine this. I now pronounce you
husband and wife right after we announce
today's sponsor.
And then it's like What is it? Raid:
Shadow Legends.
You know, every happy marriage is uh you
know, you guys are playing Raid: Shadow
Legends. I mean,
listen, you got to make your your penny
somewhere and I don't knock anybody that
does that.
Not my personal way of approaching it,
but
No, I I am I'm probably more on your
side.
There's a lot of options there. We got a
year, you know, so
Hmm. Lots and lots to think about. You
said you hired a head of operations. So,
what exactly does that position look
like? Yeah, so I mean, hiring the head
of operations was like a huge process
and decision for us, but it was actually
inspired by Yes Theory. So, Yes Theory,
I I just think that the way they have
run their company and organization is
really admirable and something that I
feel like we as creators occupy this
unique space where yes, we're talent,
but we're also business owners and
running like a a production company um
or a commercial company in a way. And
so, when you are represented by like
like a like a traditional capacity where
someone's taking a percentage of
something to help you grow your career,
at a certain point that number exceeds
the cost of a full-time employee and we
were sort of at this like
crossroads where it's like, we want
Challenge Accepted to develop into its
own brand, clothing, activewear, and
operate more like a production company.
And so, a head of operations for us
was like a really exciting hire and we
actually
um you know, someone that we know worked
for Lorne Michaels who created SNL.
Um Created SNL? Yeah, and like all of
the ancillary films from SNL properties.
Um so, he he worked at his production
company and we somehow convinced him to
join our team as our head of ops. Geez.
Um which was a crazy process, by the
way. Um but basically, what a head of
ops does is like oversee the operational
aspect of the business. So, like um
how to like there's like a whole sheet
of responsibilities he has, but they
range from like scheduling our weekly
meetings, making sure videos get out the
door, one-on-ones with all of our
employees, anything like
like editing oversight as well or
something? Um not in a creative
capacity, but in like a let's sit down
with the editors and develop like
schedules for everything. So, he like
previously, it was me sort of running
and overseeing, making sure everybody
was hitting their mark, and now it's
him. And he's also I'll be like, "Hey,
can you reach out to this brand to do
this thing?" Or let's you know, rather
than always going through like a
traditional ad agency type thing, we
have an internal person who's thinking
about that 24/7.
an And this guy will manage them or
whatever or Yeah, he he like oversees
all of our brand deals. He like any
client interaction is through him, which
is really really nice. Huh. So, what
kind of crazy challenges do you have
coming up in the future? Do you have any
idea? What do we have coming up?
Let me think. So, boxing, and then after
boxing, I think I told you guys about
the Butler Academy last time.
You did. Yeah. It's finally coming out.
I can't wait for that one. It's been a
long time in the making. Graham's going
to hire one of I would just be like
churning these videos out.
Well,
I mean,
That's too long to wait for Butler
Academy.
is. Jack, you should take that Butler
Academy. It would help you out a lot,
man. Yeah, I mean, part of part of the
struggle for us was like hiring. Hiring
was an incredibly long and arduous
process and now I feel like, okay, we've
got
two full-time long forms. We have Olivia
doing short form, Nick, head of ops.
It's uh
new era is about to happen, which is
really exciting. And then after that, we
have I went to CSI Academy.
So, I solved a crime scene. Did you like
a real crime scene or like I don't
What?
When you say solve a crime scene, I'm
like Could be a real crime scene, Jack.
Lee
uh I think we asked if we could do like
when we were filming, we're like, "Oh,
if if
something happens tonight, can we like
go with you guys and film that?" And
they're like, "Absolutely not."
Obviously, we wouldn't just, you know,
for uh for the sake of the victims and
the families and everything, it doesn't
make any sense. Um
but
so, we did the mock crime scene and then
one of our friends went to Juilliard and
he is like
extremely good actor.
He was actually on Dexter as like uh
the new season. Are you guys familiar
with Dexter?
I'm
Okay. But you know how Dexter
like finds criminals and kills them
himself. He is like one of the people
and it has like an arc as a villain and
gets stabbed by Dexter. Can you share
who it is? Yeah, his name is Steven
Robertson. He's extremely talented. So,
we called him and we're like, "Would you
like
be our bad guy?"
So, the last part of the video is me
like with a detective partner
interrogating him in character. It's
crazy. And we sat there for two hours
cuz, you know, like there was a coach
there who like briefed him and they're
like, "This is your character and this
is like only give them info when they
really push you in this way." So, it's a
challenge for me and also like, you
know, he's acting his ass off. Being a
crazy person in the chair is awesome.
That's really cool. Yeah. You should do
LAPD for a day.
I did a SCPD is one of our
one of our one of our videos, but um
police academy is crazy.
Absolutely crazy.
How does that compare to boxing? I would
say that
when I went to police academy, I was
tased and pepper sprayed
and I would never do either of those
again. I would I would rather I would
rather fight somebody. Let me say this.
What was worse, getting pepper sprayed
or tased? Pepper sprayed.
By a million miles.
Because when you get pepper sprayed, I
hope no one watching this has ever
experienced this.
It lasts for 48 hours. 48 hours?
tell you this. You think, "Oh, you just
get pepper sprayed and then like wipe it
and then it's gone."
It activates in your eyes
and then you start crying.
Then it's in your tears and it burns
your skin
and goes down like your whole face. And
then that lasts, I want to say, an hour
like searing pain.
Really?
And then it starts to subside, but then
when you shower, it reactivates in
water. How?
And then when you're showering, it goes
down your body
and burns a lot of other places further
down your body.
Yeah, it's awful.
I don't like I see them just like
drinking milk or pouring like milk on
their face. Does that work at all or no?
Um
I'm sure milk helps. I I was not given
milk when I went to the police academy
and it was it's crazy.
nothing that neutralizes that? I feel
like there's like but again, they they
didn't they didn't have a you How come
no one's invented something that
neutralizes that? Like you get pepper
sprayed, sure, but there should be like
like a serum or something that is like
spray it on top of it and it's just like
That that's probably
I wish I had that, whatever it is. I'd
be just curious cuz like, how are there
no long-term ramifications of like a
searing pain on your eyeballs? I feel
like that's just not what human bodies
were made for.
I'm sure people have had, you know,
you know, long-term effects from this
stuff. I didn't, but it it it was long I
thought it was going to be like a
5-minute ordeal. 48 hours. And I I was
like literally like crying in the
shower. I was like, "Oh my god, it just
won't stop. It's so bad." Um but getting
tased is actually way better because
when you're tased at police academy, it
only lasts like
5 seconds. What does it feel like to be
tased?
It feels like you are being electrocuted
and riding a jackhammer at the same time
like on a construction site. Your whole
body is
violently shaking and all of your
muscles are cramping.
Does it hurt at all to for those little
prongs that go in your body? So for
mine, I didn't actually get shot. They
clipped it onto me.
That's much better.
Before. Under your skin? Yeah. Uh no,
onto my clothes. Okay.
Yeah.
But then the current goes between the
two prongs. Right.
Wow.
in between, I think it was like my
shoulder and my calf.
Yeah. Like literally, I'm like like you
it's it's it's a um
extremely violent sensation.
Right, but the immediate pain of when
you're actually being tased is more
intense than the most intense part of
pepper spray, but the pepper spray is a
problem cuz it lasts longer.
Hm.
Yeah, pepper spray is a problem because
it lasts longer. If pepper spray only
lasted 10 seconds like
what I experienced when I was uh
voluntarily tased, um I I guess I would
have done that instead. But uh getting
tased in that moment is is extremely
scary.
blank. Yeah. Yeah, it it it uh like you
hear them count down and then it just
throws you back and you're just shaking
and all your muscles are cramping and
it's like extremely painful, but when
they stop, you fall to the ground.
And obviously like
you're in shock afterwards,
Mhm. but physically
it's over when it's over.
Do you have any other like random
phobias or trivial fears? Like I'm
scared of getting my blood drawn. Do you
have anything like that? You know, when
I had to get my blood drawn for Creator
Clash, Oh, yeah.
in the chair and I was shaking like a
Chihuahua. Oh my god.
Terrified. Well, I just I just don't
like
I don't know. I I I Does anybody like
getting your blood drawn? I Some people
just don't mind it. Yeah. Yeah, but I
okay. I don't know if I want to get
tased.
Not a fan of that. I don't like heights.
I don't like heights. But like I've
skydived and stuff.
was that? I feel like terrifying.
What I've heard from people that are
scared of heights that have skydived, if
that's past tense, is when you jump out
it's such a surreal experience. It's not
like hanging over like the glass railing
at like the mall, the second story of
the mall. Like that's different cuz it's
actually a feasible height, but when
you're jumping out of a plane, your mind
just cannot comprehend it. So it's not
even like fear, which is what you're
feeling, it's something completely
different, like a out of body out of
mind experience. It is because the view
is the same when you're in a plane. I
I'm a person who feels safe in planes. I
don't get plane anxiety, but when I look
out, I don't think I'm going to fall
there. So when you're in the plane going
up to skydive, yeah, it's really freaky
stepping off, but once you're in the
initial freefall, it's like this is the
view I have out of plane. Maybe that's
not the right way, but like whereas when
you're standing on a cliff or like over
the railing at the mall, you can see the
bottom more clearly.
You can Yeah, you can relate. And I feel
like bungee jumping is 50 times scarier.
Oh my god, I'm never going to do that.
You know what I mean? You see it.
Whereas skydiving Also just getting like
whipped like that. I'm not
I'm not into that. Yeah. What's the
initial feeling like when you're jumping
out of a plane? Like your stomach just
go
Pretty much and I and you it's like
you're screaming, but nothing's
impacted.
Like if I were to scream in this room,
we'd hear the volume, it would echo off
the walls, but when you scream falling
out of a plane, you can't even hear
yourself. So you feel
completely powerless.
I've no desire to do that. Come on,
let's go. The highest I've ever jumped
was a body at a roof like this and then
had a pool. You jumped from there? I
jumped from the roof to the pool.
than skydiving. I didn't I didn't think
so at all, but I remember the feeling of
just like your stomach just go
Yeah. But then it lasted longer than I
felt like it should have. Yeah. You
know, like a roller coaster kind of goes
away. This was like
still falling and I'd imagine that to
feel somewhat similar. It actually
really hurt to hit the water. I bet. I
was not expecting that. Yeah.
Gosh. Not expecting that.
We should go skydiving in Vegas.
Would never.
Yeah. I've no You guys No. I won't do
it. Come on, let's do it. I won't I
would not I I have
I've no desire to. No desire. So what do
you say to someone like Graham,
where you are very comfortable being
uncomfortable? Graham is extremely
uncomfortable to get uncomfortable. What
would you say to him? Do you think it's
fine for him to live this life? Do you
think it's okay in comfort, right? Not
venturing out of his box. What would
Andrew Tate say? Uh
I have no
He would
He would probably say sign up for his
course or whatever, which is also
probably a waste of money. But um
you know, if if you were scared to go
skydiving, I would call Jack and say,
"Buy the tickets. Let's all go." And you
probably have Graham's credit card and
then Graham would be like, "The
investment's been made."
credit card, but I
I just what I probably should not.
Um so you What would you say to Graham?
Do you think it's, you know, I think
it's fair to be scared of skydiving. I I
am scared of it. But if it's something
where you're like, "I want to do this
before I die," you just got to sign up.
Like I don't. Okay, well then don't do
it. I don't want to feel pressured. You
shouldn't feel pressured ever to do
something that you don't see finds
value.
I'd rather go to Japan between the two.
I know that sounds like But I want to I
want to go to Japan. Why did you Why Why
Why Japan? I'm saying feeling I've
always wanted
I'm saying if you like something to do
before you die, I want to go to Japan.
Okay. That would mean that would mean
way more to me. Yes. Not Not tomorrow,
but Why not tomorrow? When is your next
vacation? Do you vacation?
Uh well, Tampa.
That's not a vacation. You are working
the entire time. No, I'm not. You are
literally making
video
vacation for me. So, this is a fun
little exercise. I think about this
quite often. So everybody like they look
at Graham, they look at Gary V, they
look at certain people like that like,
"You grind. You put yourself through
challenges every single day, right? It's
a 24/7 gig." Stuff like that. And people
see that as extremely challenging and
uncomfortable, right? To work at such
lengths, right? Every single day.
For Graham, it's not challenging at all.
For Graham it would be challenging to do
the opposite because this is now what
has become easy for him. This is his
preferable life, right? So that's what I
think and I think for Graham, even for
you after putting yourself through so
many different challenges except this,
you probably have like this very high
standard of like the next one. Wouldn't
it be extremely uncomfortable and
challenging for you to do something
exact like on the other end of the
spectrum for the same way that it would
be uncomfortable for
Yeah, maybe something like that. In the
same way that for Graham it would be
extremely uncomfortable to like lounge
for a day, you know what I mean? Mhm.
You could do a video eating McDonald's,
Burger King and doing nothing but
watching TV for a week.
would that be for you?
Compared to all the other challenges.
That would be really challenging for me.
Because I don't And I think in the same
way that I think skydiving would be
challenging for you is because I think
both of us in these unique situations
don't see a benefit in the outcome.
Right. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah.
Tampa's a vacation for you?
It is. I can't.
Like are you going to at least like, I
don't know, go to Disney World, like
drive over or something?
No, no. We were there last year.
Okay. Yeah, there's nothing to it. You
You go to Disneyland here. It's like the
same thing. It's the same thing.
Yeah.
Oh, we are going to be staying by the
way with Ben Mallah for 2 days. Really?
Yeah, really. Oh, that's nice. That's
cool.
Is Are they in Tampa or
He's in Clearwater.
Oh.
Yeah, so I'm doing a I'm doing a video
with Ben.
A 4-year update video with Ben Mallah.
Yeah.
I love Clearwater.
Oh, and he's going to give his old
clothes to Alex. Oh, that'll be
exciting. Yep.
He's a real estate mogul guy. He's like
He looks like an Italian mob boss from
the '50s. He's huge both in height and
in size and he chain smokes cigarettes,
but he's a total boss. Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. So Clearwater. Clearwater.
Real estate there is pretty nice. Some
of it is. Yeah.
Yeah, it's not as I mean, the thing is I
compare it to LA and so everything there
is like, "Wow, everything is like half
off." But
it is nice to be on the water. Oh my
god.
It's cool.
So he's right on the water. He's right
on the water. He's got this like $20
million house that takes up three lots
and the home is got to be like 20,000
square He has a lazy river. He's got a
lazy river that goes through his
backyard. Wow.
massive and it's right on the water.
a a river and an ocean. He's got all the
different waters. Oh, and he also has a
bowling alley.
Wow.
Yeah. Oh my god.
Yeah, I mean, that place is it's
literally an idyllic town. It's where
The Truman Show was shot, so Is it? I
think so. Yeah, Clearwater and uh Wow,
that would be interesting.
But yeah, they filmed it. I'm pretty
sure.
That was great That was a great movie.
Yeah. Yeah, and guess who did um some of
the music, Jack? Oh, your man. Philip
Glass. Oh. Who were you thinking?
My man. Who else is my man? Danny
Elfman. No, no, no.
Philip Glass. Oh, okay. Yeah.
So how long are you going to be in
Florida then? Uh A week? Uh 6 days, 5
days. Okay, yeah. I get there on
Wednesday, come back uh you know, that
next week. Yeah.
Awesome. Okay.
Yeah.
So do you have any questions for me or
Creator Clash or anything, really? Yeah,
I mean, what's your advice to me ahead
of Creator Clash?
Yeah, uh I would say it's the mental
aspect. I didn't treat myself that well.
Like mentally I was just like, "Tune it
out. Don't talk about it. Don't think
about it. Like just get it over with."
And I don't think that was the best
mindset to have. I was so anxious that
like the entire day was just like yes,
it's finally going to be over. I was
more focused about just getting through
it than I was about like doing well I
feel. So looking back I focus a lot more
on doing well. Yeah. Wow. I just wanted
it to be over like I was so relieved
afterwards and I was like finally.
I think I'll be relieved too. I think I
think we all
I think we all will be. Yeah. But it's a
different experience than what you would
expect. I think just like the crowd but
then again like you're listening to the
crowd cheering and stuff like that but
like
that's different.
It's seeing it like walking in that room
seeing all the people. And then I felt
self-conscious knowing that so many
people were watching me and like
everything I do like someone was going
to see it and it's being filmed.
and be like this was this and that was
that. Exactly. And then I went into
thinking like if I threw more punches
then I might have an advantage but I
just tired myself out way too fast. Wow.
So conserving energy.
Yes. You almost want to be a little bit
more conservative in the beginning.
Just I guess feel out your opponent a
little bit more versus me just like
going in and like I got to do this cuz
if I threw more punches like I'm not
going to get hit. I hope that I have
that opportunity too because I you know
I would love for the first round to be
like
feeling it out but I have a feeling
it'll be
she wants an early knockout. It could
be. The other thing just make sure to
keep your hands up. I thought the same I
thought the same thing. I was like
everyone's putting their hands down. Why
are they doing that? Like cuz again you
forget everything.
But the most important for me was like
the right hand. I'd put my right hand
down or when I would do a jab like I
would naturally jab right hand down.
It's just like an instinctual sort of
thing but you It's crazy how when you're
watching it's so easy to be like
why didn't I do this or why didn't this
boxer do that thing and then when you're
in there Yeah. Oh I'm also going to say
it does not help to watch the fights
before. I think I would have done
Like in your when you're in the waiting
room? Yeah yeah. I think I would have
done much better if it were just I had
no idea what's going on.
So
I think I would have done better.
Was watching the fights before
that
freaked you out more?
It did. It just stressed me out.
Yeah because I saw everyone that was
going out was coming back and like they
all had an injury and I'm like what's my
injury going to be like? And so That's
an awful head space. And like you know
yeah in the moment like obviously now
looking back no one was seriously
injured and like everyone recovered.
But just watching that I think it
stressed me out even more and I just got
in my head about it.
evokes
um
like in Gladiator movies That's how I
felt.
are waiting to go like fight a lion or
whatever and then they bring the body
back of the person before and you're
just like
Yeah in front of everybody. Yeah that's
how it felt to me. Yeah cuz everyone
you'd see them come back and like I I
forget the one guy's name but like he
had a broken nose and I was just like oh
man that's nuts.
[ __ ] Oh my god. Yeah cuz um
Hayley who fought last year Yeah. Um she
and I trained at the same gym and so one
of the wonderful things about this
extremely abbreviated fight camp has
been I've gotten to train and spar with
her which has been Oh that's fantastic.
Yeah. But um you know we'll be you know
one of us will go first and the other
will go second and
Oh my god I
I am
Like I feel like we have a unique bond
the two of us.
Oh for sure. And we we we share some of
our we each have different coaches but
then we each share some as well. Mhm.
And so I
I really hope that you know whether it's
me going first or her going that we can
feed off of each other and support each
other
rather than be like oh my god you got a
broken nose and now I got to go like
that.
Ooh. Exactly. So if you could just avoid
watching I think that would help. Do
they have like TVs backstage?
did in mine. Yeah and of course everyone
is huddled around the TV. It's it's hard
like cuz you hear it. And and you can
also
it on the TV and then you hear the
crowd.
because your room at least my room was
like 60 ft away from the entrance of the
for the walkout. And so it's like you
just walk down a hallway turn right and
you're there. And so we were kind of
going in and out you can kind of peer
out and see like what's going on there
but like and it's weird with the delay
too because you would hear that like a
few seconds before you would see it on
the screen. So it's like you hear a
thing and you're like what just happened
you see it on the screen. Oh my god.
Yeah. So if you can it might just hype
yourself up to like put on
like music or like airpods tune it out
be by yourself. Yeah.
But then again in the guys locker room
there were like 20 people in there.
there's going to be like
three in mine. For you guys yeah it's
going to be a lot easier. Alana
There are a few other female fights. So
it'll be like
five of us I guess in each locker room.
Yeah.
So it might be a little bit easier than
than ours like 20 people in there. And
then every fighter had like two to three
people with them. So that's how we got
like such a big group. People are all
like you know doing their warm-ups and
stuff like that. Yeah.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So if you could just
headphones in just zone out meditate
just visualize it I think that'll go a
long way.
Yeah. Absolutely. Oh my gosh I
I'm like getting butterflies just
thinking about it right now. That's
crazy.
butterflies like remembering this stuff.
That's why I'll I'll never do it again.
Yeah I'm glad you'll be there though. I
feel like
you're a friendly familiar face I can be
like
Yeah. And you'll be like
get it together.
See I'm going to be doing that video. If
they allow me in your locker room I have
a feeling they won't but if they do I
would love to get your take like before
all of this or like
You're going to see me vomiting in a
trash can before.
Oh the the one thing I will say Michael
Reeves said the issue and kind of so did
I.
I
was very nervous my mouth was getting
very dry beforehand so I was drinking
water.
And I had the sensation of having to go
pee once they wrap once they wrap your
gloves
and you can't do anything. And so
Michael was talking about yeah he had
his trainer pull down his pants for him
That's going to be me.
went to the bathroom.
So for me I think it was more of a
mental thing cuz I once I knew like
these gloves are wrapped you have like
30 minutes and and you want to be like
on your game and it's like
if you feel like you have to go to the
bathroom like it's going to throw you
off and I was like oh crap now I like
this is going to throw me off. Is there
anything else you guys want to talk
about?
Yeah we'll just
wrap it up with something light. Um what
do you think is the meaning of life? Oh
my god.
light some light
discussions yeah some easy questions.
I think the meaning of life is different
for everybody. I guess for me
it's similar to how I'm approaching this
boxing match where
I don't ever want like
days or a month or a year of my life to
go by where I feel like I could have
I I could have made it more of what I
wanted.
So not necessarily like like the idea of
I I wish I could have done more
but
I think for me it's like
is everything I'm doing in every day and
every moment fulfilling and exciting.
Cuz at the end of this I mean
we're all going to die
and
nothing after that matters to me as as
an individual.
What do they call it the
the age-old adage where it's like if
you're on your deathbed you want to look
back and and be happy with with all of
the decisions that you or that you said
yes to something rather than just that
you said no to something.
Absolutely.
I just really want to like
have a rich and exciting life
of all of
whatever life has to offer.
There.
How do you one-up this? Do you know
what's next? Yeah do you know what's
next after?
I mean we we definitely have like a lot
of fantastic videos coming after this.
And this is going to be the longest
video. I mean this is over a year of
footage which is crazy.
Um I don't know exactly at this point
like what the next like massive project
will be but I mean I've also learned
like some of the the best performing and
most impactful videos we make don't have
to take a year to make. They can be shot
in a day so
Yeah. I'm really open to whatever
honestly.
Do F1.
I want to do that and I also want to do
pit crew. Ooh.
Because they have these facilities where
pit crew are trained and they like
practice like throwing the tires and
you know all that.
Yeah. I would do both of those. I think
that would be so cool.
Yeah. Anything else you want to talk
about?
I guess I just want to say future me I
hope you're a winner.
Oh I love it. I want to shout out Eric
Carrick from Tri Carrick for letting us
do this video.
Yes Eric thank you so much. Eric Carrick
to shoot him to shoot him out to shoot
Yeah We shot We shot him out. We shot
him out.
We we shoot him out here.
man. Thank you Michelle for coming here
on the Ice Coffee Hour. All of your
links will be left down below in the
description. If you want to shout
anything out if you want to shoot
anything out go ahead. What do you want
to shoot out? You can shoot me out by
subscribing to my YouTube channel. There
we go. So with that said you guys thank
you so much for watching. Links down
below in the description feel free to
check them out and until next time.
Cool.
That's fantastic. Lovely.