Posted in: Boxing, Pop Culture, Sports, TV, Twitch, YouTube | Tagged: boxing, creator clash 2, TikTok, Twitch, youtube

We Watched The Spectacle & Charity That Was Creator Clash 2

We had a chance to watch Creator Clash 2 this past weekend, and we've got the results along with our thoughts on the event.

Yesterday evening, we had a front-row seat from the comfort of my living room to the content creation charity boxing event, Creator Clash 2. In case you weren't already aware of the event, this was a chance for content creators across multiple platforms to come together and beat each other up in a professional boxing setting after taking on training ahead of time. Broadcast live from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. With all of the proceeds going toward charitable organizations, including the Sarcoma Foundation of America, Critical Role Foundation, American Heart Association, Kids Cancer Foundation, Nicklaus Children's Hospital, Paralympic Sports Association, Humane Society of America, American Kidney Fund, The Able Gamers Charity, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and The Longest Day.

The first fight saw streamer Jack Manifold going against TikTok skateboarder Dakota Olave. Both men fought in a super featherweight bout where they were tasked with setting the mood for the evening, and they wasted little time fighting each other with some solid punches. The first two rounds were a bit of an exchange on what felt like even ground; however, in the third round, Manifold started bleeding from his nose, and you could see Olave held the advantage for the rest of the fight. At the end of five rounds, the judges gave Manifold the win by unanimous decision. (50-45, 49-46, 50-45)

The second match in was the first women's match of the night, as we saw a super flyweight bout between Twitch streamer Jaelaray and voice actor Abelina Sabrina. Jaelaray looked ready to compete, while Sabrina looked stoked as she came out with a mariachi band. From the onset, the two appeared to be evenly matched, but it was pretty clear that Jaelaray had a slight advantage from her height and reach. While the organizers did their best to pair people up who were even in several areas, there was no doubt that Sabrina just slightly had to compensate. She wasn't a pushover, she went the distance for another five rounds, but Jaelaray walked away with the unanimous decision. (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)

One of the most anticipated fights of the night was next as the returning Nathan "Dad" Barnett faced off against AB "Starkilla" Ayad of the H3 Podcast. Both men competed in the first Creator Clash, so people were stoked to see what might happen between the two. It almost nearly didn't happen when Dad charged to the ring, jumped in, and got his arm caught in the ropes. For any other boxer with low experience, that would have been an injury to cost them the match. While the hype was here, the match was quick chaos. It wasn't bad, but honestly, the less said about it, the better, as it basically was just Dad throwing as many wild punches as he could while Ayad basically took them until he got TKO'd in the first round.

Next up, we saw comedian Chris "Raygun" Maldonado face off against William Haynes. Both of these men were booked kinda last minute and only had a few weeks to prepare, but that didn't seem to mean much for Haynes, who had the height and power advantage over Maldonado. He scored a great right hand, and Maldonado hit the mat for a knockdown, but he pushed through into the second round as the two continued despite clearly not having any kind of advantage on his side. The referee stopped the match at the 1:50 mark in Round 2 to give Haynes the victory.

The second women's match of the evening, and probably one of the more high-profile for the two people involved, video game writer Alanah Pearce went up against film composer Mika Midgett, aka RIPMika. The fight was a little interesting to watch as we saw Mika go more on the offensive for a lot of the bout, while Pearce was clearly in more of a defensive strategy. Mika did a lot of dancing around, trying to find a a hole to punch through, while Pearce held her ground. The first four rounds were kind of uneventful, and while she was doing well, you could tell Pearce was a little gassed out. They worked themselves up a bit more in the fifth round, but this one came down to the judges, with Pearce winning a split decision. Two judges scored the fight for Pearce with 48-47 scores, and one for Midgett with a 48-47 score. I was looking forward to this one because I felt Pearce could be one of the breakouts on the card and surprise a lot of people. It happened, not quite the way I thought it might, but she showed she could hold her own.

Another match we were looking forward to was pro-gamer Myth going up against Brett "Hundar" Hundley from Muscle Party. This was a cruiserweight catch that had all the potential to steal the show, and in some ways did, as it was pretty much the Myth show from start to finish. Myth wasted no time putting Hundar down for the count with a perfect right hand. The referee called the match after checking on Hundar at the end of the round, giving Myth the win with a first-round TKO.

The third women's match of the night saw Haley "Yodeling Haley" Sharpe looking for redemption after losing in the first Creator Clash, taking on Marisha Ray from Critical Role. Ray was flanked by the entire cast of CR who showed up to support her in dark robes for this super lightweight affair, and was actually viewed as a favorite coming into the match with a large amount of crowd support. However, Haley proved she wanted this one more as she landed some of the more impressive hits on Ray throughout the match, proving that she not only learned from her last experience with Justa Minx, but improved. The match ended with all three judges scoring in favor of Haley for a unanimous victory after five rounds.

The first of two Heavyweight bouts was up next as  Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson of GameGrumps looked to avenge his own loss last year as he fought against YouTuber Jarvis Johnson. Hanson was flanked to the ring by the members of TWRP (formerly known as Tupper Ware Remix Party), bringing the hyp before the clash. And man, what a clash as the two really held nothing back and went after each other from bell to bell. This was another example of two men being pretty evenly matched by the bookers as they were able to exchange hard punches and put each other in peril of going down a few times. But it was Hanson channeling his inner Sailor Moon with a series of blows that sent Johnson down with a second-round TKO, and a victory for the Grump.

The fourth and final women's match on the card showed Challenge Accepted host Michelle Khare taking on a new challenge as she faced off against Canadian chess player Andrea Botez. This, above all of the other fights, felt like a war of attrition as they both were jocking for position, but barely landed anything that would really cause a blow or a knockdown to the other. I'm not going to call this a boring fight, but I legit went to get a drink and snacks in the middle of it because it was clear the two were going to go all five rounds without a clear winner. Once it was done, all three judges scored the fight for Khare, all three with a 49-46 result.

Entering the final three matches of the night, we got YouTuber Ethan "CrankGamePlays" Nestor going up against commentator and Pokémon master Lee "Leonhart" Steinfeld. Steinfeld went with the nostalgic entrance as he was sung to the ring by none other than Jason Paige, the man who sang the original theme to the Pokémon animated series in North America. Because, hey, why not? When are you ever going to have that opportunity again? The two had a very well-matched couple of rounds against each other, but it was clear Nestor had something to prove, not just to the crowd but to himself. Nestor scored a series of blows against the ropes that stunned Steinfeld and eventually sent him to the mat. He managed to get up before the referee's 10-count, but after checking him out, the ref stopped the fight and Nestor picked up a third-round TKO.

Now we've reached the apex of this event with the first of two main events, as professional wrestler John Hennigan went toe-to-toe with Epic Meal Time's Harley Morenstein. Hennigan came to the ring with what has to be the strangest support group ever, which included Hacksaw Jim Duggan (complete with his 2×4) who got the crowd hyped. Meanwhile, Morenstein chose to come through the crowd to the tune of the Midge Ure version of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World." This was set up to be a knock-down-drag-out, and it was for what may be the wrong reason. Both men were in excellent shape, in fact, Hennigan put on a ton of muscle that he didn't have as a wrestler. Meanwhile, Morenstein had lost 30 lbs. to get in better shape before this fight. However, it was clear Hennigan had more experience as he was able to put his opponent down three different times, including the last one where Morenstein went through the ropes and onto the timekeeper's table outside. Hennigan walked away with the win after a third-round stoppage.

Finally, after what feels like a lengthy night, even for a WWE PPV, we have arrived at the main event. Creator Clash co-founder Ian "iDubbbz" Jomha jumped into the ring for the second time to face off against YouTube star Alex Wassabi in a well-fought cruiserweight match. It seemed like we were going to get an early stoppage from Wassabi as he nailed iDubbbz with a number of clean blows. iDubbbz came back and pushed hard against the grain with some quick work and timed combos. But nearing the end of four rounds, it was clear both men were looking a bit gassed, and the match ended up going to the judged who scored the fight for Wassabi with two 39-37 scores and one draw at 38-38.

Overall, this was a pretty awesome event! I enjoyed listening to the pre-card rundown from Markipler and JackSepticEye, as they gave their honest thoughts on the matches as well as Creator Clash 2 as a whole and some of the pre-match predictions. Esfand and Amouranth both did a fine job on the pre-match interviews before people walked out, although I'm still confused about the cowboy outfits that didn't seem to match anything else happening on the show. This was a major step up from the first one, and everyone who worked on it should be super proud of the work done and the money raised. Looking forward to 2024's lineup, whenever that may be. But this event needs to get the hell out of Tampa and go somewhere bigger. This event deserves a spot in Vegas.

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