KSI Vs Logan Paul - The Rematch

KSI Vs Logan Paul 2 was announced for November the 9th of this year, with promoter Eddie Hearn at the front of the event. This is incredible for YouTube and shows how far the YouTube boxing scene has progressed in just over a year.

Eddie Hearn and Matchroom boxing being involved with the rematch is only a positive for both YouTube and Boxing as a sport. The event is going to be incredibly well run and I have no doubt it will set new heights for YouTube events.

If the rumours are true, Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney are going to be to be on the undercard. These world class boxers are going to be exposed to a new, younger and vibrant audience. This will be incredible for the event and Boxing on the whole. This new audience will see the very best at the sport and may be inspired to take up the sport themselves.

I attended the last two Matchroom boxing events at the O2, those being Vasyl Lomachenko Vs Luke Campbell and Dillian Whyte Vs Oscar Rivas and both were incredible events.

Eddie Hearn also making time for me and my brother Whyte, Rivas as well as everyone else at Loma, Campbell.

In a recent Sky Sports interview, Hearn explains how he was initially sceptical about the first fight but once he saw the fight and the numbers it pulled, his mind quickly changed.

The Manchester Arena sold out instantly, York Hall had to shut down for the London Press conference as well as 1.3 million pay per view buys. It would’ve been ridiculous to ignore it.

Hearn explained there were a few conditions for the rematch if KSI and Logan wanted him to promote the event.

‘You want to do this; you do this properly. You turn professional, you follow the code of everyone else… get those head guards off, this is a real fight.’

These conditions I agree with, this was inevitable even before Eddie Hearn was rumoured to promote the fight. KSI and Viddal Riley (KSI’s trainer and future world champion) already mentioned about KSI having a pro fight in the future.

Hearn wasn’t going to promote an amateur boxing fight as the main event with world class boxing on the undercard.

His next statement however, I completely disagree with.

‘On the undercard we want world championship boxing, we don’t want other YouTubers’.

There is nothing I want more than world champions to be on the undercard but YouTubers have to be on it to. This is why KSI Vs Logan 1 and KSI Vs Joe Weller pulled the audiences they did.

Yes, this is a boxing event but above all else this is still a YouTube event. This is why I completely disagreed with Jake Paul wanting to fight Soulja Boy.

Yes, you did read that correctly and 2007 was 12 years ago…

AnEsonGib, Jay Swingler, Jake Paul, Joe Weller, Deji, Faze Sensei, and JMX are few examples of previous YouTube boxers who deserve their place on this undercard.

They were the reasons why the YouTube audience were attracted to the event, Eddie Hearn says it himself ‘the digital world, the social world stopped!’.

This is why!

I understand if the YouTubers who wanted to fight on this undercard would have to turn professional also. This could be an issue for many reasons both with the choice to fight as well as whether they would be allowed to by some of the boxing associations.

If this was the case then I would understand but as far as we know, Eddie Hearn is straight up not allowing YouTubers on the undercard…

This could be a mistake.

The True Geordie, Laurence Mckenna, Hugh Wizzy along with Viddal Riley all discussed this in a recent video on The True Geordie’s YouTube channel.

Geordie opened the discussion saying that arguably ‘the best fight on the last card was AnEsonGib Vs Jay Swingler’.

Geordie continued, arguing if you set up a full professional boxing undercard on the event it won’t generate nearly as many numbers as the last two events. Claiming there would need to be an integration of both professional fighters and YouTube fighters.

I agree with this, then you have attracted both the traditional boxing audience as well as the YouTube audience.

This integration will be will be the key to record breaking pay per view numbers.

Not many people were as positive as me when I heard the news that this was going to be a professional event with Eddie Hearn behind it.

A lot of respected people in the boxing world as well as a few boxers, Sunny Edwards being one, were fairly frustrated with the promotion and platform KSI and Logan now have in the boxing world.

You can understand their frustration, up and coming boxers with huge careers ahead of them who have poured everything into boxing their whole life haven’t even got near the position which KSI and Logan have after just over a year in boxing.

However, both KSI and Logan have had to grind in a different way.

Laurence Mckenna explained this in True Geordie’s video I mentioned earlier, ‘one has had to graft to get himself out of a situation which he took for granted and the other has had to graft in another way, so much so he’s now basically royalty in the UK as far as YouTube goes’.

KSI and Logan have deserved the audience they have because of the way they have persevered. This is how the last event got the numbers which it did.

Once people understand this, you can see how KSI and Logan have deserved this opportunity.

Maybe not in the boxing terms but in terms of where they have come from to where they are now.

The second criticism is that there shouldn’t be a world champion on the undercard. Which is understandable, how can a world champion like Billy Joe Saunders be below 2 beginners of the sport who have extremely less skill and talent than himself.

One argument for this would be in complete agreement of this statement, that Billy Joe Saunders should be the main event or on a different card all together. If you want to showcase boxing to a new audience put up and coming boxers and give them potentially a larger platform.

The second argument, taken from Viddal Riley’s interview on IFL TV, is that ‘Billy Joe Saunders is a world champion. He has already appealed to the traditional boxing audience, why not try something new? This is great exposure for him!’

What do you think?

Overall, Eddie Hearn promoting the rematch with KSI and Logan is only positive. The benefits for both YouTube and boxing will be incredible. A new audience will be brought to the sport of boxing and a new sense of professionalism will be brought to YouTube with such a huge promotional company collaborating with the event.

However, there has to be YouTubers as well as the ‘world class boxers’ which Eddie Hearn himself has said will be on the undercard. If not, I don’t think this will pull the same audience as the last two fights.

Then again I might be wrong, Eddie Hearn might have done this deliberately. The traditional boxing fans will buy the pay per view for Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney and YouTube fans will buy for the main event…

But what do I know?