In what was touted as the biggest white collar boxing match in the UK, the fight between Sensational YouTubers KSI 24 and Joe Weller 21 attracted a huge crowd that ended in a Knockout win in favor of KSI thus bringing to its peak the ongoing verbal battle between the duo online.
I’m sure almost every YouTuber user will know who KSI is. Olajide William “JJ’ Olatunji is a rapper, comedian and actor who is also a YouTube personality that goes by the handle KSI. What’s phenomenal about him is that his channel has now almost 3 billion views and 17 million subscribers since October 2017. That’s a fantastic reach for anyone monetizing a channel on social media. KSI’s debut album EP Keep Up was released in 2016 and hit no 1 on the UK R & B charts as well as in several countries. However today he is more focused on gaming and his content is mostly soccer and is rivaled by another YouTube called Joe Weller.
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Joe Weller is another YouTube personality who has been uploading videos onto the channel since 2011 and has almost 4.7 million subscribers with 1 million followers on twitter. Weller is well known for his football videos with an element of comedy where his main focus is FIFA. His ‘World Cup Song: Brazil 2014’ got more than 3 million views in one month.
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The duo faced off in an amateur boxing match held at the Copper Box Arena in London on Saturday. Both have been promoting and building up the event since the last six months and have been training hard in hopes to win but why did they fight each other?
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Weller and KSI have a history of exchanging words on Twitter and leading up to the fight enhanced the verbal duel on social media. The arrangement for the boxing match between the two YouTubers began last year in August when the feud between them escalated.
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They also began making videos against each other’s comments. Weller had uploaded a video that criticized and made fun of KSI. He deconstructed his Diss Tracks in a video calling it Internet melts (Diss Track Edition).
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This soon followed up with KSI releasing another fresh diss track speaking against Weller and named it “Two Birds One Stone”. Both continued the social media battle until they even met face to face in September. It was then that they decided on their boxing match and it all seemed comic banter then. At the Upload event in September, they clashed again and it was after this that the feud took a more challenging and serious turn.
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In the press conference, the duo almost came to blows even as fans in the room kept chanting ‘fight, fight, fight.” KSI kept taunting Weller saying “Do you need drugs? Do you need drugs to stay sane?” Joe then pushed KSI knocking him backwards and the two had to be separated by security as fans went wild screaming.
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Preceding the fight, both men were also interviewed by YouTuber “The True Geordie” and soon began to be known as the Geordie interviews.
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The duo’s feud reached the boxing ring making them keyboard warriors to real warriors facing each other in a no holds barred amateur boxing match that was played out in front of a sellout crowd of 8000 people at the Copper Box Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday the 3rd Feb 2018 at 6 pm. Over a million watched the fight online that was broadcasted on YouTube.
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The fight which organizers have said has generated ten times more interest by punters than a fight between regular boxers ended in KSI winning by technical knockout after 3 rounds in the scheduled six rounds match. The champ delivered a victory speech after the fight naming disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul and also discussing mental health.
In music KSI has also become popular for his football rap battles and has released a book called KSI: I am a Bellend. Joe Weller and KSI share similar content on YouTube making them the biggest rivals in the game.
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During the fight both men wore protective headgear because of their inexperience and custom made boxing gloves. KSI wore his with illustrations aimed at Weller that included a drawing of his “dodgy knee”. Weller being knocked out and a reference to one of Weller’s songs: hello kitty”. KSI is now the current holder of the YouTube championship belt presented to him by professional boxer Dereck Chisora. The belt was previously vacant and this makes KSI the new title holder.
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Surprisingly the fight has set a record for the “biggest white collar boxing contest in the UK” ever. Once the fight was over KSI gave a victory speech calling out England captain Rio Ferdinand who is an aspiring boxer too. KSI kept shouting “"Where's Rio? Where's Rio Ferdinand? I know he's doing his Betfair thing. If you want some bro, I'm ready." He also called out Logan Paul and Jake Paul.