Survivor Tag boxing has a lot of kinks to work out.
Saturday evening, Misfits Boxing debuted Survivor Tag boxing in the main event of Misfits 8, pitting influencers NichLMAO, Swarmz, B Dave, and Ryan Johnston against each other in a curious new form of influencer combat.
Survivor tag is sort of a combination between tag team boxing and king of the hill. Like tag team boxing, only two boxers are competing at any single time, and those boxers can tag out at will, but unlike tag team boxing, there is only one winner at the end of the contest. Two boxers start things off, with the other two boxers in each corner, awaiting a tag. If a fighter is ever knocked down, he is immediately eliminated from the contest, and if a fighter refuses a tag, he is eliminated from the contest, but if no one gets eliminated, the bout ultimately goes to the judges.
Johnston and Swarmz kicked things off, but after a minute of fighting, neither man landed anything substantive and they both tagged out. B Dave and NichLMAO came in and swung hard briefly, but B Dave immediately tagged out for Johnston, and then Johnston tagged himself out quickly, as did NichLMAO. The first round repeatedly saw boxers swap in and out, without any one boxer doing any real damage to any other boxer.
NichLMAO and B Dave started the second round out and the two men actually got after it, brawling recklessly, with NichLMAO landing some big shots that ultimately forced B Dave to tag out. NichLMAO then also tagged out, and then it was Swarmz and Johnston’s turn to do their part. Unfortunately, neither man landed much, with Swarmz showboating some before both men tagged out again. This time, NichLMAO decided to stay in, brawling B Dave for awhile before B Dave tagged out, and this time NichLMAO stayed in, scrapping with Johnston for some time. Through two rounds, it was NichLMAO who has clearly done the most in the ring.
Round three started with Swarmz and Johnston back in the ring, and after Swarmz landed a good shot, both men tagged out again, opening up B Dave and NichLMAO to get back to brawling. B Dave had more success this time, opening up a cut on NichLMAO, and the two men tagged out with two minutes left in the round. More tags occurred and the frequent changing of boxers resulted in a sloppy, hard to follow mess. No fighter was really able to build any momentum or clearly separate themselves from the crowd until the very end of the round when Swarmz landed some good shots on both B Dave and NichLMAO.
Round four started with NichLMAO and B Dave getting right back to brawling and those two were by far the most fun of the bunch, but after 40 seconds, B Dave tagged out after eating two massive shots that clearly hurt him. NichLMAO also tagged out, leaving Swarmz to box up Johnston, staggering him at one point. Both men tagged out yet again, and again NichLMAO landed big shots until B Dave tagged out. By the end of things, the survivor concept had essentially boiled down to NichLMAO and Swarmz vs. B Dave and Johnston. With short time, Johnston tagged in against NichLMAO, who promptly landed a huge combination that sent Johnston stumbling across the ring, only to be saved by the final bell.
In the end, NichLMAO’s big punches earned the nod from the judges, awarding him a decision win over the other three influencers with a total of 117 points.
Following the bout, even the commentary team acknowledged that the Survivor Tag format still has some issues to work through, suggesting various adjustments that could be made to the scoring, the time, and the overall rules the next time Misfits does this, meaning this is likely not the last time we will see the format.
Check out highlights of the weird and absurd event below.
