On November 9, live in Los Angeles, KSI and Logan Paul will meet once again for a boxing match. Here’s everything you need to know.
Who are KSI and Logan Paul?
KSI, whose full name is Olajide Olayinka Williams “JJ” Olatunji, is a British YouTuber who rose to fame playing Fifa on his eponymous channel. He began his YouTube career in 2009 and a decade later has amassed 20 million subscribers with well over four billion video views.
The 26-year old has also dabbled in rapping, back in 2015 he released a song called ‘Lamborghini’, which at the time of writing now has well over 100 million views.
In more recent times, the YouTuber has entered the world of amateur white-collar boxing. In 2018 KSI faced against fellow YouTuber Joe Weller in a boxing match. KSI won by means of technical knockout and then upon winning challenged Logan Paul to a fight.
Like KSI, Logan Paul is best known for his YouTube career. The flamboyant 24-year old American began on the now defunct Vine video app. He gained traction in 2013 but when Vine closed down, he went to YouTube and gained an even bigger following.
Paul’s channel consists of ‘Vlogs’ showing his own whacky personality and lifestyle. As of October this year he has over 19 million subscribers and 4.7 billion video views. His channel however took a hit in 2017 when he recorded and published onto his channel a video of a corpse in a Japanese forest.
Paul began his fighting career when he fought KSI. He has since been training for his rematch.
How did the first fight go?
The two met in August of 2018 after months of training and trash talking. The UK and US nationals met at the Manchester Arena to a sell-out 20,000 audience. As we previously estimated, the fight drew in at least US $12 million from pay-per-view transactions alone.
The event itself had around 1.3 million viewers on the official stream watching the pair fight for the ‘YouTube Boxing Champion’ title.
The fight ended after six rounds, with a majority draw being called. The fight itself was structured in an amateur setting, with both YouTubers wearing headgear.
Following the draw, it took months before a rematch was revealed.
What’s different about the rematch?
The rematch this time will take place in the US, Paul’s home country. Unlike the first fight, this time round it is being played under a professional ruleset. The two men will not have protective headgear and they will use lighter gloves allowing for more powerful and controlled swings.
Another big difference about this rematch is that both men are acting a lot more confident on their fighting abilities. Both Paul and KSI have gone on record as saying they want to take up some kind of professional fighting following the rematch.
KSI has said he’d love to continue his boxing career, saying “I definitely could fight a few other pro boxers,” he’s also shown interest in taking on WWE. The Brit said that “I would [also] try WWE. I wouldn’t mind WWE, I’ve done a bit of wrestling, so you never know.”
Paul on the other hand has gone a bit more extreme with his goals saying he wants to do MMA after fighting KSI and at some point in the future wants to fight Conor McGregor.
How have they been training?
Both YouTubers have been taking the rematch very seriously. Starting with Paul, he’s said he is eating 36kg of food per day and is also drinking the blood of cows. The 24-year old is also getting training from Shannon Briggs, a former heavyweight boxing champion.
Paul has not given exact details of his training routine, but he’s working out every day with cardio, weights, skipping, sparring, you name it. He has assured Business Insider that “They’re making a machine out of me”.
Like Paul, KSI is keeping his training schedule hush hush. We do know however that he’s been training with Anthony Joshua, another heavyweight boxing champ. He did recently share a video of himself performing a 225kg deadlift in Las Vegas, he’s clearly a strong guy.
Where is it taking place?
The rematch is set to take place at the Staples Center in L.A., the stadium has a similar capacity as the first stadium used, so around 20,000.
When is it taking place?
The event will be streamed live on various platforms on November 9. The event starts at 7 PM ET, meaning it will be 4 AM GST the following day (November 10) for Gulf residents. The main event (KSI vs Logan Paul 2) begins at 11 PM ET or 8 AM GST.
Tracking numbers are HUGE for this Saturday! If you aren’t @STAPLESCenter here is where you can watch around the World!!! #KSILoganPaul2 pic.twitter.com/eHG8RDJR58
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) November 6, 2019
Where can I watch it?
Unlike the previous fight which was streamed on YouTube, this fight will be streamed live on a number of dedicated-sports services. For people within the UAE, it will be streamed on FITE.tv for a price of US $9.99.
