YouTube star Nathan 'Dad' Barnatt is willing to go the distance in his ring return this weekend, despite his debut only lasting 22 seconds last May.
The social media sensation with over 800,000 subscribers across his channels stopped comedian Matt Watson in the quickest YouTube Boxing knockout of all time at the inaugural Creator Clash. And he returns on Saturday night at Florida's Amalie Arena against H3 Podcast star AB Ayad hoping to land another viral knockout.
At the age of 42, Barnatt is one of the oldest competitors on the weekend's card, but he is keen to show off his impressive cardio over the five-round distance. Ayad competed last year as well, dropping Hundar in a back-and-forth fight that didn't go his way, and could hang up the gloves after this fight.
"I'm truly being honest with you, i do not embellish, I can go 15 minutes straight of punching and moving without any breaks," Barnatt told Mirror Fighting ahead of the event. "That's what me and my coach worked on, we did these really intense drills where we're hitting the bag, I'm sparring, getting hit, throwing for 10-15 minutes non-stop.
"That's so that I can definitely throw for two minutes with a 60 second break afterwards, I don't even have to sit down. I have psychotic cardio, I will say, but I assumed that's what everyone just had to do. Then I learned 'on, no one really does this' and I've done a 12-hour dance stream where I didn't stop moving."
Barnatt flew out of the traps in his last effort against Watson, opening the entire fight card with a flurry of punches that saw him eventually force the referee to step in within seconds. But knowing that he faces a considerably tougher test in the form of Ayad, who put down a much bigger opponent last time out, he is eager to prove he can box more than simply just throwing.
"I genuinely want to put on a show," he insisted. "It doesn't benefit me too much to do the same thing so everybody goes 'okay, great, Dad beat another guy'. It kind of denies people entertainment and I'm a big boxing fan, Mickey Ward is one of my favourite fighters and I want a fight like Ward-Gatti.
Who do you think wins; Dad or AB from H3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"Their fights are 100 per cent what I like, they just throw the whole time, both of them and it's like a slug-fest. That's what I want to do, I want someone to throw back at me so I can show that I can move, slip, get away from them and then I can have a constant action the whole time.
"I'd like to win, relatively early as opposed to later and it would be nice if it didn't go the whole distance. But if it does, it would be nice because me and this dude threw down super hard and whatever happens in the end happens. That would be more fun for me to show that I can hit and get hit back.
"Doing the same thing that I did last year doesn't help me too much either way. I'll get more people to come and check me out if I can prove that I can get through a fight. I hope that AB is tough and that he's good at boxing, which granted he is because he went as long as he did with Hundar but he didn't go the distance so I'm confident I can end it earlier myself."
