KSI? Logan Paul? Who are they? That is probably what you are asking yourself right now, unless you’re an avid follower of the UK/USA YouTube scene. KSI, real name Olajide Olatunji, is one of the biggest Youtubers in the world, and currently the number one most subscribed to YouTuber in the UK. He is of Nigerian descent, and currently boasts over 19 million subscribers, and over 4.4 billion video views. Yes. billion. Logan Paul on the other hand weighs in with 18 million subscribers, and 3.9 billion video views. He is an American, who has only been on YouTube for 3 years, making his numbers extremely impressive. KSI on the other hand, is about to complete a decade on the platform.
Whether you like it or not, being a YouTuber has become a major profession, and it has elevated those at the top to celebrity status. So when two individuals with such a mass following announce they will step and fight one another in the ring, it becomes a very big deal. Maybe not for everyone, but certainly for millions.
I have been watching KSI since 2011, when he was mostly known for uploading videos of himself playing FIFA. I heard about Logan Paul in January 2018 when he infamously uploaded footage of a suicide victim in Aokigohara, which is a forest in Japan that is notorious for being a suicide spot. The world did not take kindly to his disrespectful video in which he appeared to laugh at the victim, and it almost cost him his entire career. The issue was trending on Twitter for three consecutive days. To say it was a big deal is an understatement.
Trends on YouTube are constantly changing, and 2018 came about with a more physical trend. Boxing. KSI battled fellow YouTuber Joe Weller in February, which sold out the Copper Box arena in London, and was livestreamed by over 1 million concurrent viewers, and currently sits at over 17 million views. Massive numbers for amateurs who spend most of their day in front of a camera filming pranks and other entertainment videos.
I believe this trend was inspired by the Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight which had the attention of the entire world, just a few months earlier. The buildup to KSI vs Logan Paul was a carbon copy of the Mayweather McGregor fight. Press conferences were held, abuse was exchanged, they even released high end music videos insulting the other. These were getting millions of hits. The world was invested, and generally they did a very good job to hype up the fight. They made the world believe that they actually wanted to rip into the other. When in reality, they had no legitimate reason to. These are two young millionaires who are thriving in their careers. Movies, Music, YouTube, they are doing the lot.
If you need further indication as to how big these individuals are, they both trained at The Mayweather gym for the fight, and were coached by Mayweather Snr, Floyd Mayweather’s father, KSI did further sessions with Michael Bisping, a former UFC Middleweight champion, and Chris Eubank jr, who is a current professional boxer. He was ultimately under the tutelage of Viddal Riley, an up and coming UK boxer tipped to be the next breakout star in the sport. Logan Paul trained with Sugar Shane Mosley who is one of the biggest names in boxing history.
The fight came under a lot of scrutiny from lovers of boxing, who viewed this as disrespect to their sport. Personally I believe it attracted a new audience to the sport, and it will inspire young viewers to take up the sport. In this internet fueled, PlayStation crazed, ”techy” world we live in, I cannot see fault with anything that shifts children from sedentary lifestyles, and gets them doing activities that benefit their world.
A big talking point also was that they charged to watch the fight online, after it had previously been announced as free. It cost roughly 800 kenya shillings to view, and this had a massive effect on it’s total viewers. In this day and age, everybody loves free things. If there’s one thing that is gauranteed on the internet, it is illegal viewing. A crime I believe we are all guilty of. The legal stream had about 1 million viewers, bring the income made ON THE LIVESTREAM ONLY to about 800,000,000 Kenya Shillings. Millions viewed the fight for free all over the net. Including Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch, with many of the illegal streams being taken down by Google employees, however it is impossible to shut everyone down. When one went down, another 5 sprung up. One stream on Twitch had 500k viewers at a particular point. ONE stream, of the hundreds that were up illegally online. This just shows the appeal the fight attracted.
The event include an undercard, as per the usual with nay boxing event, with a number of other YouTubers fighting before the main event. The penultimate fight involved Jake Paul vs Deji Olatunji, big Youtuber’s themselves, and siblings to Logan Paul ankd KSI respectively.
I will not disclose the results of the other fights, in case you want to watch them. However, seeing as this article is about KSI vs Logan Paul, I have to talk about their fight.
KSI had the upper hand going into the fight, because he had fought before. Logan Paul was making his boxing debut, but he is no novice to sport, boasting an impressive physique, and wrestling background. Logan Paul started the brighter, with his longer reach, and height being an obvious advantage. His jab caused KSI lots of problems, and Logan Paul comfortably won the first two rounds. This was a six round fight. KSI got back into the fight, and won the next two rounds, in my opinion. Logan Paul took the fifth, and KSI won the last round, and he was literally seconds away from decisively winning with a knockout. Logan Paul was tired, depleted, and was honestly saved by the bell. My instant thought was that the fight was going to be called a draw.
The UK crowd were obviously supporting KSI, and boos echoed the arena when the result was read out by Michael Buffer, who is the voice of boxing, declaring the fight a draw. I felt the verdict was fair, because I believe each man won 3 rounds each. The result set up the foundations for a rematch in February 2019, this time on American soil. The internet went into meltdown convinced that they had rigged the fight in order to ensure a rematch, and a chance to line their pockets with money again.
Steve Bunce, a boxing pundit revealed they could receive 4 billion Kenya shillings EACH over the course of the two fights. Not bad for 36 minutes of work.