Chase DeMoor, star of Too Hot To Handle and Perfect Match on Netflix, has vowed to shock fans with a vastly improved performance after being stopped in his professional debut.
The former college football standout had toyed with boxing during a celebrity exhibition with fellow reality star Corey Wharton a few weeks prior to facing Josh Brueckner in November last year, and was brutally hurt during his bout with the MMA fighter. But after teaming up with Jackrabbit Boxing in California, the massive 6'5" heavyweight is plotting a major comeback.
Having adopted a 'heel' persona both on reality TV and in the crossover boxing world, DeMoor has become one of the most interesting prospects on Misfits Boxing's second American outing on April 21. His natural physical advantages should make him an imposing figure, particularly if he can take on the basics of the sport after receiving a harsh "wake up call" in his last showing.
"I fought Brueckner on 12 days notice with no sparring," he told Mirror Fighting ahead of his ring return. "You get kind of a wake up call that maybe this isn't as easy as I thought it was. Maybe my pro football background, my athletic background is not enough to just show up and beat people up.
"That loss was something that I needed and something that really brought me back down to earth because who knows really, if I beat Brueckner and then I stop training and don't work as hard. That loss gave me something to work towards, something to focus on and I think Jackrabbit is the perfect place to do it."
Learning under coach Ivan Sylve, whose son Ashton is one of the top young lightweight prospects in America, DeMoor insists that he has come on leaps and bounds. He faces influencer Stevie Knight on the undercard of teammate LeVeon Bell's meeting with Brit Joel 'JMX' Morris, and is keen to make waves, announcing himself on the heavyweight scene.
But he is still courting offers from football teams in the XFL and the USFL for a return to football and could make a return to his original sport. "As of right now, my complete focus is boxing," he insisted. "Obviously, I've been in touch with a lot of pro football teams so there could be a moment on any day where I get a call that says 'Chase you've got to show up to football'.
"That's going to pull me away from fight camp. I've got to go back to play football and then go and fight this fight. At that point, if that does happen then there will be a decision made. But as of right now it's not something that I'm currently really pursuing, I'm not on the field running routes or anything.
"I'm just in the gym two or three times a day hitting the bags, hitting people. I'm sparring Leveon Bell, Minikon, essentially my full focus is boxing right now because I've fallen in love with this sport. That loss really woke something up in me and brought something out of me that I didn't know I had.
"It was that competitive nature, that desire to win that I haven't had since I was a kid in football. So this is definitely what I love and what I'm focused on right now. There's going to be multiple parts to this fight because people are watching and wanting me to fail."
If that was what viewers were wishing for, they got it in his last outing. A video showing DeMoor wildly swinging at the air during his bout with Brueckner, a veteran of 14 MMA bouts professionally and as an amateur, went viral after the bout, and he was stopped by his corner for emerging after the second round.
But he has re-imagined the moment and utilised it to fuel a heel character, mocking fans online and declaring that he is just a few fights away from heavyweight greats like Tyson Fury. But despite the silliniess on social media, he is keen to legitimately prove his mettle as a boxer with a big showing.
Who do you think wins between Chase DeMoor and Stevie Knight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"Everybody wants to laugh at me and be like 'you're not him' and tell me to give up boxing," he noted after the loss. "And that's part of it too. People want to see me f*** this up. But I've always had this chip on my shoulder to prove people wrong and I think that is why I train so so hard because I understand the pressure and what is on the line here.
"I'm somebody that thrives under pressure, it's something where people tell me not to put that pressure on myself but I live by it. I think the biggest thing that I would say is different in this case is that before I was driven by the paycheque and I'd just go beat up some little dude.
"I thought 'boxing is a joke, this s***'s easy' and that I'd bounce out of there, 'see you guys on Twitter '. But with the fight with Josh, I left the open workout while he was warming up so I could go eat Chipotle. I did five minutes of the open workout and then I dipped out of there, it was something I didn't take serious at all.
"Things are a lot different now but I'm still having fun with it and the biggest difference is that now I have something to prove whereas before I didn't think I had anything to prove."
