On November 9th 2019, KSI, defeated Logan Paul by split decision in both their professional boxing debuts and now Logan’s brother, Jake, is seeking revenge.
British Youtuber, KSI, came out on top against American Youtuber, Logan Paul in Los Angeles’ Staples Centre, which accumlated, approximately 2 million live viewers. KSI’s split decision win came as a result of the referee’s controversial decision to deduct 2 points from Logan for two illegal punches landed upon KSI. The undercard welcomed championship fighters, such as Devin Haney and Billy Joe Saunders and was promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
So, after the first professional boxing fight between two youtubers, which many boxing fans defined as an ‘insult’ to boxing, where do we go from here? Well, after his brother’s defeat, Jake Paul, is now making it his mission to avenge his brother’s defeat and beat KSI. However, before this, he must defeat British Youtuber, Anesongib.
It’s no mystery that Jake had always planned to fight KSI, even if his brother had defeated him, but one of the specifications that Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boing offered him in order to be granted a fight with him, was that he fought one fighter before this, to show his worth, as it were. Many names were thrown about but none seemed to be professional boxers, just more entertainers.
Jake won his first and only amateur fight against KSI’s brother, Deji, on the undercard of the first encounter between the two internet giants back in 2018 by way of TKO. His fight with ‘Gib’ will serve as the co-main event for the Demetrius Andrade-Luke Keeler WBO middleweight title fight and will take place on January 3oth in Miami.
The bout will be six 3-minute rounds with each fighter wearing 10-ounce gloves. Gib has had two amateurs fights, winning both, one by way of TKO.
“It seems like I’m overlooking him because that’s the narrative we’ve built,” Paul said at their press conference at the beginning of January. “At the end of the day, I have to defeat him first. Jan. 30 is what I’m focused on. But I know I’m going to win. You have nothing to lose. This is your biggest payday. This is your 15 seconds of fame. You’re seven-and-half seconds in. How is it so far? Is it good? You enjoying your 15 seconds of fame? Soak it in while you can.
“But here’s the thing: You have nothing to lose. I have everything to lose. I’m Jake Paul, the big, bad wolf. If you think you have a mental edge over me, you’re f—ing wrong, kid.”
While Gib has played the more humble role, stating he understands the challenge laid out ahead of him but he is ready.
“This is the fight I wanted, he didn’t want this fight. I forced this fight upon him. So, I’ve been training every day. I’m doing the sparring. I’m doing the running. I’m doing the training. That’s all I got to do.”
Both fighters have a strong motive going in to this fight and either one of them has the capability of winning it. Eddie Hearn has expressed that, like the KSI v Logan fight, this will be a professional fight and it will be treated as such.
Is Youtube boxing going to now be a thing? This will be the fourth boxing event that Youtubers have played a role. Boxing fans don’t seem to support this decision but as Eddie Hearn will say, this is the way the world is going, this is a digital age and having internet stars such as Jake Paul and Gib fighting on professional boxing cards, will bring in a younger audience, fans that may not have been as interested in boxing beforehand. Can we really argue with that?
The fight takes place on January 30th in Miami and you can watch on Sky Sports Box Office.
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