Speed is garnering more fans day by day in MMA. Traveling while interacting with personalities all over the world is also his trademark for his YouTube channel. He is typically known for his live gaming streams and reaction videos but you’d be surprised that Darren Watkins Jr also has a hidden combat talent.

The young man who can do 100 backflips in 30 minutes can also choke out his opponents pretty well! However, he still did not want to participate in MMA even after defeating Dana White’s friend Adin Ross.

The YouTube streamer recently spoke to Shannon Sharpe in Club Shay Shay. Speed was surprisingly open to fighting Floyd Mayweather even though he got brutally outstruck by Dan Hooker. However when Sharpe asked him about joining MMA, he was pretty apprehensive.  

Sharpe tested the waters and asked, “So MMA? You want to try MMA?” Speed denied this and said, “Oh no, I don’t know about MMA that one is too brutal, the elbow like; I don’t.. that’s just…” So for him, UFC was too raw and brutal which is indeed true since we have seen legendary fighters succumb to bone-breaking losses.  For instance,  Conor McGregor broke his shin bone while fighting against Dustin Poirier and had to undergo surgery. 

However, Sharpe did not lose hope and complimented Speed on his victory over Adin Ross. This happened in the impromptu fight at the Fanatics Fest where even the UFC head honcho was present and presiding over the match. The clips of the moment when Speed choked Ross and the latter taped out had gone viral on the internet as well. IShowSpeed does have prior WWE experience when he was RKO’d by Randy Orton at Wrestlemania.  Considering that this happened in front of White, many fans including Sharpe wanted Speed to go to MMA. 

With that same wish in mind, the American Football light end, gifted 4-ounce boxing gloves to the YouTube streamer. However, the 19-year-old was adamant about not fighting in MMA because it was too brutal for him.  In fact, Speed even declared that with 6 months of training, he could beat Jake Paul, but he still does not prefer MMA.  Nevertheless, the young streamer did join Dan Hooker for a sparring session leaving fans in a frenzy. Speed and ‘Hangman’ were inside a cage together during the YouTuber’s visit to New Zealand.

Speed and Dan Hooker fought it out inside the cage

“Nobody in here can beat me at boxing,” was what Speed argued before fighting Hooker. This made Hooker excited and clap with his focus pads on. He was excited to teach Speed a lesson but the 19-year-old was also very slick.

“No kicking. I know how this sport goes. I don’t want anything broken. Let’s do boxing,” he pitched. As the friendly sparring session started, Speed was seen bouncing around the cage to maintain his distance far away from the lightweight star. But even then Hooker lunged with strikes one after the other. Speed could not take the Kiwi’s strikes anymore and finally left the cage while saying, “You a good a** fighter, I could tell you were going easy on me.”

Funnily enough, MMA journalist Oscar Willis shared the fun sparring session clip of Hooker and Speed on his Instagram. The lightweight star had replied, why he went so brutal on Speed: “Had to for the rubbish haka (laughing emoji).”

So clearly Speed knows how brutal UFC can be. If you had to choose between boxing and MMA, what would you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comments below.