- [Commentator] Bell, and round one.
(suspenseful music)
- This fight, did not go as expected.
(intense music)
I have to work the pads
with Thomas, show my shadow boxing
to a crowd of fans that have come just
to see each of the fighters warm up
and show a little bit of their training.
I watched Chris Avila do his
and honestly, I was feeling confident.
I was feeling comfortable.
I thought I was in good shape, considering it was Wednesday
and the fight was still a few days away on Saturday.
- [Interviewer] Preface where we're about to go.
- We're about to go do a face-off/one-on-one
with the one and only Ariel Helwani
and obviously, Chris Avila.
This will be my first time ever meeting him.
I've only seen him from a distance or on social media.
- Dr. Mike, do you know this guy?
About 20 or so MMA fights, boxing fights,
UFC Vet, Bellator veteran, why are you doing this?
- I gotta challenge myself.
- Is there anything that you can say about his skills
that you can say, "All right, I give this guy some props.
I mean there's something there," nothing?
Nothing impresses you? (Mike chuckling)
- We actually exchanged the fist bump across the table
and I thought that was a sign that was reassuring,
that we had some sportsmanship showing there.
This is because Nate Diaz, Chris Avila,
the whole crew has a reputation
for stirring up trouble, especially, on fight week.
But luckily, nothing happened at this.
That was old, that's five years ago.
- Yeah, yeah, you look a lot different.
- Yeah.
- 186.5.
(Jake screaming)
- The weigh-ins start
with the official weigh-in in the morning.
That is for the boxing officials
in order to make you qualify for the fight.
And then later in the evening, is
when you have the ceremonial weigh-in
for the press, the public and the face-off
and all that stuff.
Now for this fight, I promised to be at 185.
I normally weigh around 205
to make sure I was making my weight.
On Thursday, the day of the press conference
at 3:00 PM we said, "I'm gonna shut off all water."
So no drinking water up until I weigh in Friday morning.
This was probably overkill.
Thursday night, I was unable
to sleep, being so thirsty.
It was very uncomfortable.
I was already nervous, I was already stressed,
not sleeping well, dehydrated.
- [Assistant] Oh no, that's fine, yeah.
(percussion instrumental music)
- Mike Varshavski, official, 182.6.
- 182.6, The lightest I've ever been
since probably, I was 17 years old.
Chris, by the way, weighed in at 183.3.
So he weighed in more than I did.
(Jake groaning)
Then afterwards, I started drinking water again,
eating normal food and not just eating normal food,
but eating the foods that I wanted to eat.
(choir vocalizing)
(intense music)
So now it's time for the ceremonial or public weigh-in
for the media and all the fans that came to the arena.
(intense music)
- Dr. Mike Varshavski!
- They tell the public what you weighed in, in the morning.
- [Presenter] Dr. Mike weighs in
at already, 182.5 pounds,
182.5.
Chris Avila weighs in at 183.25 pounds, 183.25 pounds.
- I actually try to give him a pound when I walked up.
He completely ignored that.
We do the face-to-face.
I'm staring at him.
He tells me, "What are you looking at?"
I just keep staring at him.
He gets mad.
Be prepared to see a boxer, not a doctor inside that ring.
- [Ariel] Chris, what did you say to Dr. Mike up there?
- I didn't say (beep).
This fool, he's a piece of (beep).
- I thought there would be a little mutual respect
with the fist bump, didn't get that.
I expected the shove.
I knew it was coming 'cause the stare wasn't breaking.
(intense percussion music)
(static buzzing)
- You got Dr. Mike?
(bystanders heckling)
- [Friend] Whoa!
- [Thomas] That's not right, man.
Oh, that is not right.
(suspenseful music)
- It was time for me to start getting my hands wrapped.
All this process started up,
and something funny was happening to me backstage
that didn't happen during Creator Clash.
I wasn't nervous, but I also wasn't excited either.
I was kind of numb during the backstage process
and even after I got my hands wrapped and I was talking
to everybody and all these people were
in the room, I was trying to hype myself up, trying
to hype Thomas up.
The fire wasn't there and I think
that my mind and body were just a little bit fatigued going
into this fight.
And that's when I thought,
and I discussed it with Thomas,
I discussed it a few days before,
I told him I was worried about fatiguing
because during sparring sessions, it's happened before.
He said, it's in my head right now.
Once the adrenaline goes, I'll be fine.
I recovered during fight week.
Everything should be good.
We're about to walk out actually,
and they're playing my song
and I should be hyped up and I walk out
to the audience, they're cheering
and I'm giving everyone pounds
and I'm just doing it as if nothing's going on.
Just like, "Hey, what's up?"
Saying hi to friends versus, "I'm about to get into the ring
with this killer,"
and I have no worries, no fear,
no nothing, it's like too much poise, if you will.
I do the introductions.
I wave to my family, I see them in the crowd.
I'm trying to understand the ring
and I feel dissociated from the moment.
I don't feel like I'm fully there.
But you know, I push on.
I say, "You know what, we got this."
I'm trying to hype up Thomas.
They introduce us.
It's time to fight.
And the fight happens.
(bell ringing)
- [Commentator] Bell in round one.
You're not gonna expect a surgical precision
from the good doctor in his professional debut,
but he's taking these punches
from Avila and walking through fire early.
- [Presenter] And this is what Chris's team
told me they wanted to do.
- [Host] One thing that Varshavski has shown
is a certain amount of poise in the ring.
You know, he's not getting rattled
and he's kind of punching pretty well also.
But Avila's laying some big ones like that.
- [Commentator] Varshavski heated with no problem.
- [Host] Did land some nice overhand rights,
that was one.
- [Commentator] Under a minute left in the second.
Avila coming forward now, sitting down
on the right hand, trying
to pull a couple left hooks behind the guard.
Varshavski able to withstand it
but he got caught flush on the jaw with that one.
Avila lands the left and now beginning
to open up on Varshavski.
(crowd cheering) (suspenseful music)
- [Host] That was a good right hand.
- [Commentator] Money shot, right hand from Varshavski.
There's a one-two by Avila,
but the smaller fighter unable to hurt Varshavski
with those clean strikes.
Varshavski trying to fight back!
Lefts and rights, Varshavski despite having the high guard,
this has of course, defense.
Avila continues to land at will now.
Mike Mikhail Varshavski got...
There's levels!
And Varshavski gets rocked with the right,
it's the left
and yet Varshavski, may very well end this fight
on his feet as Avila, ambushing Varshavski
or Varshavski with a desperate left to hold on,
and barely holds on.
But hey guys, he made it to the end.
- [Announcer] The winner, Chris Avila!
- [Mike] Thank you so much.
- [Crew] This way, excuse me.
- Much respect, man. - Thanks.
Thank you, Chris again, appreciate it.
(guests chattering)
- [Assistant] Hey, I just need an invite, I'm there.
- [Friend] (chuckles) All right, you already know.
- [Mike] All right, my apologies, senor.
- You don't need to apologize for anything, love you.
- Elvis, sorry I didn't make you proud today.
- Don't worry about it, man, you made me proud.
- There'll be another day. - You made me proud.
Everything was good.
- Elliot, thanks for supporting, appreciate it.
Ah, it's so annoying.
I know I'm gonna watch that back and be so annoyed.
- A lot of those, slap, slap. - He won the fight,
but he wasn't better.
His technique is sloppy.
- [Thomas] Super.
- He did what he had to do.
His whole thing was to catch you at overhand right.
That's all he was doing, that was it.
- [Thomas] Everything we said.
- [Coach] But, chalk it down to experience.
It happens.
- Well obviously,
I can say the fight didn't go the way that I expected.
Chris Avila is a very experienced fighter
that knew what to do in order to counter my strengths.
My usual double jab,
straight right hand was largely ineffective against him
and that sort of paralyzed me in the ring.
When I tried to throw upper cuts,
he was very solid, defensively.
And then my worst fear
of what I was worried about,
and I shared with Thomas going
into the fight, happened, I fatigued.
What that resulted in is, me throwing less punches
because if I threw more, I would fatigue harder
and I would be more open to a knockout or knockdown.
I think I ended up over training.
I think I overdid it
and didn't give myself enough rest leading up to the fight.
And I probably should have listened
to my body better there
and said, "You know what?
I probably need to take a few days off.
It's better to rest than not."
I will say, hats off to Chris Avila.
He was a tough fighter.
He had this weird looping overhand right
that caught me several times.
Otherwise, I think my toughness showed.
I think it's very easy, especially being a novice fighter
in their professional debut,
to get hit with one of those body shots
or on those looping right hands
and just fall and say, "Why am I doing this?
I'm a doctor," but that's not what it's about.
It's about taking those risks
and living to the full potential.
That's why we set out to do this,
to inspire kids,
to support the programs like the Boys and Girls Club here
in New York, this was an incredible opportunity.
So I have to give a huge thank you
to Most Valuable Promotions, Showtime, Pay-per-view
for trusting me to take this seriously,
to train hard, to go all four rounds, Chris Avila,
for taking on the fight.
Boxing is still something I'm super passionate about.
I have to figure out where I go
from here, what the journey holds for me.
I wouldn't write me off just yet in the boxing community.
I still think that I have some something
to offer to the sport.
So YouTubers, I'm putting you on watch.
I'm not an easy fight.
It might have been an easy fight
for Chris Avila who's fought 20 plus times.
But for YouTubers, I would be careful
of challenging the doctor 'cause I'm still ready
to prescribe these hands.
During my boxing training, I actually got injured
and had the worst medical experience.
Click here for that story
and as always, stay happy and healthy.