KSI vs. Logan Paul

KSI vs. Logan Paul is a two-part amateur boxing match between respective British and American YouTube personalities KSI and Logan Paul. It will be held on 25 August 2018 at 8:30 PM BST in the Manchester Arena, Manchester, England, and will be streamed on YouTube's pay-per-view platform.

Background
After KSI's successful fight with fellow YouTuber Joe Weller on 3 February 2018 at the Copper Box Arena in London, which received over 20 million views, he challenged Logan Paul's younger brother Jake to fight. Jake Paul was initially the one to fight KSI, however, Jake backed down, letting his older brother Logan step in to fight KSI whilst KSI's younger brother Deji Olatunji (also known as ComedyShortsGamer) stepped in to to fight Jake. The two parties have signed contracts agreeing to have two fights, one to be held on 25 August 2018 at the Manchester Arena in the United Kingdom, and another to be held on 4 February 2019 in the United States. Originally, Logan and Jake Paul wanted any fight to be held in a neutral venue, preferably Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but Logan had decided to go with the two-fight plan. The fight bought the attention of the mainstream media aswell as professional boxing promoter Eddie Hearn as well as boxers such as Floyd Mayweather, Anthony Joshua, Amir Khan and Dillian Whyte. Professional UFC fighter Michael Bisping, who trained KSI prior to the match, said the fight was "an insulting mockery" to professional boxing and martial arts, stating, "I find it almost insulting to everybody that has dedicated their life to being a fighter. Come up the hard way, been a lifelong boxer or martial artist and then these two come in… they’re almost making a mockery of the sport of boxing and martial arts."

Press conferences
Two press conferences have been held to promote the fight. The first was held on 16 June outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles which was hosted by two-time Heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs.

The second press conference was held on 18 July at York Hall in Bethnal Green, East London, this time hosted by YouTube personality True Geordie who commentated on the KSI vs. Joe Weller fight. During the London press conference, KSI and Deji mocked both Logan and Jake, Logan's girlfriend Chloe Bennet and their father Greg Paul to the point that both Paul brothers walked out of the press conference prematurely.

Following the press conference, fans of KSI and Deji attacked Logan and Jake's their cars which were rented by their friend and Las Vegas nightclub promoter Arman Izadi. Izadi threatened Deji with a lawsuit against him, claiming that Deji incited the fans to attack the Pauls and challenged Izadi to a bare knuckle fight. Deji denied these claims and said "the attack resulted from other factors, including the fact that Greg Paul actually assaulted a fan first.”

After the press conference, the Pauls requested for True Geordie to not commentate on the fight, claiming that he was "biased" towards the KSI camp for allowing him to insult the Pauls without intervening. After speaking over the phone, the situation was resolved and it was confirmed True Geordie would be commentating on the fight.

Card
On the fight's undercard, JMX was expected to fight TGFBro´s Romell Henry, but Henry later pulled out due to injury and was replaced by HalalHam. It was later revealed that JMX will instead be fighting YouTuber and athlete Coach Richard, and that HalalHam will be facing Jrizzy Jeremy.

AnEsonGib is expected to fight TGFBro's Jay Swingler on the event's undercard.

Broadcasting
The fight will be streamed on pay-per-view on YouTube, via a YouTube channel dedicated to the fight. The pay-per-view was set to cost £6 in the United Kingdom but was raised to £7.50, and $8 in the United States. The pay-per-view prices received negative responses from fans, as KSI's past fight with Joe Weller was streamed on YouTube for free. YouTubers True Geordie, Joe Weller and Laurence McKenna are set to commentate on the fight. Iconic ring announcer Michael Buffer is set to be announcing the fighters.

Piracy concerns
Due to the high profile of the event in the social and online world, and the use of pay-per-view instead of the usual free YouTube streaming, pirate streams of the fight became a concern for promoters. In a video by KSI, he stated that "anyone who is planning on illegally streaming or torrenting the fight won't be able to as employees from Google and YouTube will be taking down and disabling streams all through the night." However, this did not discourage fans from advertising illegal streams on social media websites such as Twitter and Instagram in protest against the use of pay-per-view. KSI tried to address the use of pay-per-view via Twitter stating, "The cost of the event itself is on another level to last time (the KSI vs Joe Weller fight). Plus the press conferences, weigh-in and making other content for the new channel, all adds up."

Belt
The winner of the fight will receive/retain the YouTube championship belt. The belt is of red colour with gold motifs. Its design features an eagle with its wings fully spread atop a golden globe with a crown at its center. The belt was presented to KSI at his previous fight by professional boxer Dereck Chisora.

Betting odds
Odds are as of 22 August 2018.