(slow intense music)
(bell ringing)
- Welcome to the final showdown!
(upbeat dance music)
(gong)
- Hey, I'm Michelle.
- And I'm Jordan.
- And we're going to be UFC fighters!
- No, we're not but we're gonna try.
- Well, we're gonna train like them for two months.
Last October when I was walking home
I was mugged at knife point.
I'm doing this because I want to overcome that fear.
And whenever I'm faced with a life-threatening situation
ever again, if it happens,
I want to be mentally ready for that.
Have you ever been scared for your life in a fight?
- No, not really .
- I think that this is going to be able to kind of
empower us a little bit more
and instill more confidence in ourselves.
- I think another challenging aspect of this sport
is that you have to meet a weight class...
- We're going to take a look at your weight and body fat so
we make sure that you have enough lean
to show on your frame.
You're going to be working with your nutritionist
to get you within your weight class.
- [Jordan] I was focused on how to eat right
and properly fuel my body.
- I can't believe that I have to lose this.
For the next eight weeks we're pretty much going to be
training six days a week.
- If I don't have a six pack at the end of this,
I'm going to be fucking pissed.
- My name is Krzysztof Soszynski.
Former UFC Light Heavyweight Contender.
I am here at BuzzFeed to train Michelle and Jordan.
Alright, so let's get our first punch in.
So, the one, the jab.
Let's learn how to punch first
and then we'll start moving our feet as we punch.
So right now, we're just going to punch...
- The first day of training kicked my ass,
just like any other training session does and should.
So it was tough but it was a good challenge.
- Now we go to the middle punches, middlistic punches
are your hooks.
Think of, there's a coffee mug on the table right here,
You're gonna reach out for it,
you're gonna bring it almost to your face.
Very similar to that, yes.
- What I really loved about K Sauce was
he really took us seriously.
He didn't water down the training at all for us.
He gave us the real deal.
- Hut, hut, hut, two
Suh, two, three
suh, suh, two
hut, block
block
- Ah, ah, ah ah ah (laughing)
We did it, we finished lesson number one!
So on a weekly schedule
Jordan and I would train with K Sauce
three days a week for a private mixed martial arts
and mixed martial arts specific training.
Outside of that, I was running 12 miles a week,
lifting for two hours a week, riding my bike for five hours,
and also going to yoga for three hours.
I just woke up and I feel like
I need to go right back to sleep.
- Two hours a day, five days a week of
strength and cardio and conditioning work
that I normally do which is
all of my power lifting, Olympic lifting, crossfit stuff
I'm hoping that getting sick was just a coincidence
and it's not my body telling me that I'm
doing to much.
- We're going to UFC Fight Week!
- Fight Week!
- We're gonna see all the fights tonight and tomorrow
and we're also going to train at the UFC gyms.
So it's gonna be fun!
- I think Michelle and I did Vegas very differently
from how most people do it.
It's 5:30 in the morning.
- We have training.
(techno music)
- So it was really cool.
It was our first time in a UFC gym
and it was kind of a different environment.
- Getting to train at the UFC gym in the Octagon was so
awesome because it felt like our ultimate goal
of becoming a fighter
was just becoming that more real.
- I had seen the UFC fights on TV before
but seeing it live, for the first time
got me so much more amped than I thought it was.
- You can see the blood flying off people
you can hear the bones cracking.
- Within minutes we're seeing all these knockouts
and I just got so excited and so amped up.
- So the plan was for us to...
You guys were gonna fight me.
- Yeah.
- Alright, we're gonna spar against each other
in a final competition, well,
you guys are gonna spar against each other.
(laughing)
- Cool.
- Finding out that Jordan and I were going to
spar each other in a finale fight
was a little bit daunting at first.
- So you guys get to kick each other
and punch each other...
- And so when we found out that we were gonna fight,
I was excited, it gave me a very specific end goal
and I think when you're working towards a specific goal
it's a lot easier to put the work in.
- We just finished our first workout for week five
and we sparred each other today.
- For the first time.
We punched each other in the face.
- Yes.
- For the first time.
- And I cried.
It was one of the most embarrassing things
that's ever happened to me.
I had a really hard time seeing sparring as fun
and associating it from an actual confrontation
in my past.
It just like, blows my mind, how like
last week we were in Vegas watching these girls just like,
beat the shit out of each other and
they're not crying.
- The fear doesn't ever really go away
you just have to learn how to manage it.
- I wanna be like that.
I wanna be fearless.
Coming into the second month
final weeks of training
it was getting a little crazy.
We were training a lot.
We were doing a lot in the gym, a lot on the mat.
- I think I was starting to just be really ready
for it to be over.
- We just finished learning how to wrestle.
- I wanna throw up.
I think my body was adjusting to the training but mentally
I was very exhausted,
I think by the end of it.
- Today we're doing a UFC, MMA fighters weight cut.
At this point in time,
we have been fasting for 16 hours
and we're about to do a 90 minute workout
wearing something called a sauna suit
while covered in Albolene which is makeup remover...
- That can't be safe.
Weight cut day sucked and I knew it was gonna suck
and I wasn't looking forward to it.
- Going out on our ten minute run.
A weight cut day is basically
the day before a fight happens
fighters have to meet their weight class
and if you're hovering a little bit above
you have to do a bunch of activities
and dehydration techniques to lose the water weight
in your body so you can meet your weight class.
- It was very difficult to not just say,
"Fuck it, I don't want to do this"
but then you kind of have to think about the fact that
fighters don't have the privilege to say
"Fuck it, I don't want to do this"
because if they don't do it,
they don't get to fight.
- I can't believe we did it.
- Only one more day.
After the weight cut was done
we took our after photos
and I think it was really cool to see
the change in my body composition
because I definitely leaned out a lot
over the last two months.
- I was really surprised how much my body changed.
- It's Michelle Khare versus Jordan Shalhoub
in the final showdown.
We are minutes away from this highly anticipated match.
I know I am excited and I'm a little bit scared,
they are, they are really fighting.
How excited are you for this match?
- I am, holy shit.
I'm more so scared than excited.
- I'm so excited, I'm really so giddy.
The entire office is here.
We've all stopped working,
nothing matters except for this fight.
- I'm nervous and excited for them.
I think it's gonna be a great fight.
They're amazing people and amazing strong women
and I think they're gonna rock it.
- I could feel the nervousness like
boiling up inside me
and the anticipation was really, really killing me.
- I was really nervous because I felt that a lot of people
didn't believe in me.
- Do you have a favorite going into this match today?
- I'm rooting for Jordan.
- I think Jordan obviously has more of a power.
- I know Jordan is like crazy built.
- I'm a little partial to Jordan here,
I've known her a little bit longer.
- I think Michelle just has a really great work ethic
I think she's gonna surprise people.
- Michelle's got a speed.
- Michelle is a hard worker and trained a lot
so this could go either way.
- You have been working with these girls for 60 days.
What are your thoughts going into this match?
- I'm actually really excited.
I think the majority of the crowd here doesn't
really understand what they're getting themselves into.
I mean, we're doing the real thing.
This isn't a scripted..
This isn't like, where we planned this out.
The fact that over the 60 days they went from
not knowing a single thing about mixed martial arts
to now where they get to spar three, three minute rounds.
That's kind of unheard of.
It doesn't really happen.
It took me years just to get comfortable with this.
So the fact that they're doing it at 60 days
is absolutely mind-blowing.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the final showdown!
(crowd cheering)
And now, please,
focus your attention to the main entrance
and welcome our first fighter...
(rap music)
And please,
bring your focus back to the main entrance
and welcome her competitor,
our second fighter...
(rap music)
(crowd cheering)
(bell rings)
- The first minute of the fight was kind of crazy
because Michelle and I both experienced what they call
the adrenaline dunk.
You just go blind and adrenaline surges through your body
and it's like I was this uncontrollable fighter.
- I knew that the first round would be the hardest because
she would have the most energy.
I just tried to like stay as calm as possible
and use the best combinations I knew
because I knew that rounds two and three
would be very different for her.
(bell rings)
(gong)
Second round was feeling better because
I think we were both getting a little more tired
so I just slowed things down.
- [Jordan] I was like,
"Oh man, I'm exhausted already,
maybe I should scale it back".
Cause' we've done this before
but never in front of an audience.
- [Michelle] This is what a lot of fighters
in particularly female fighters go through.
All of these audience members,
none of whom have potentially ever done any MMA whatsoever
are critiquing you, like,
"Oh, well she should ave swung here,
and then taken this person down when..."
No shit, Sherlock.
Okay, let's see you get in the ring
and try to do that.
(gong)
- [Jordan] Last round I kept telling myself,
"Three minutes and it's over, three minutes and it's over,
you can do anything for three minutes".
So I tried my best but I was tired,
I'm not gonna lie, I was very tired.
- [Michelle] I thought that I was doing really well
in the third round.
I told myself before the third round
just to go back to basics
and that seemed to work really well for me.
(bell rings)
(crowd cheering)
- [Keith] Give it up, give it up, give it up stand up!
Ladies and gentlemen,
in the first round
Jordan took it with a score of ten to nine.
In the final round
ten to nine went to Michelle.
And in the second round,
both of you scored nine,
28 to 28 final!
- What?
(crowd cheering and booing)
- I have no idea who won the second round
it was even to me.
I really don't know who won the second round,
if to me whether they both scored really well on both sides
I had to give it nine, nine.
They were both even on the second round.
- I went into this challenge wanting to be able
to be stronger because I had been physically assaulted
and I wanted to have skills to prevent that
from happening again.
I wasn't expecting to be forced to face a lot of mental
fears that I had and just carrying that knowledge
with me now makes me feel more confident in my body
than I ever have before.
- I think you can only go into a fight
with so much planning because there is this
unpredictable-ness of your opponent.
So I think by the end of it,
fighting created this really cool challenge for me mentally
that I was able to kind of overcome and its always cool
to train your mind and your body in like
a completely different way than you're used to.
- A lot of women don't have exposure to this sport
because there are fewer women in it but I think
that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
- I think everybody should give it a try if they want to
but know that it's gonna be difficult and it's gonna take
a lot of dedication, for sure.
- I think both of these ladies exhibit
perhaps the most incredible thing we've ever seen
in a BuzzFeed video.
- [Jordan] But I think it was worth it.
I think we both feel very accomplished right now.
- I'm proud of us.
Go team.
Let's go eat dessert.
- Yeah, I'm hungry.
- We haven't done that in a while (laughs)