In a cruiserweight clash between YouTube stars, KSI (20.6 million followers) won a six round split decision over Logan Paul (20.6 million followers). KSI seemingly dropped Paul in round three, ruled a push down by referee Jach Reiss. Paul dropped KSI with an uppercut in round four, but was controversially deducted two points by Reiss for hitting KSI when he was on the deck. KSI had more left in the last round with the fight on the line. Scores were 56-55 Paul, 57-54, 56-55 KSI.
It was the pro debut for both and was the main event on Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The fight generated a lot of attention with a younger boxing audience. 10,000+ were watching live and millions watched online.
Unbeaten super middleweight Nikita Ababiy (8-0, 6 KOs) won by first round DQ against Jonathan Batista (19-16, 12 KOs). Ababiy dropped Batista with a right hand. Later Ababiy was deducted a point for hitting behind the head. Ababiy got in Batista’s face after the bell and Batista threw a light punch. Referee Ray Corona then disqualified Batista.
WBA gold super bantamweight champion Ronny Rios (32-3, 16 KOs) scored a fourth round KO over Hugo Berrio (28-8-1, 18 KOs). Rios dominated from the outset and finally dropped Berrio with a big right hand to end it. Time was 2:56.
Unbeaten 18-year-old super middleweight Diego Pacheco (7-0, 6 KOs) knocked out Aaron Casper (5-5, 4 KOs) in round four. Pacheco dropped Casper in round one and twice in round four. Time was 2:49.
Unbeaten super welterweight Reshat Mati (5-0, 3 KOs) stopped Cody Peterson (1-6, 0 KOs).
Cruiserweight Josh Brueckner outpointed Tyler Smith over four in the pro debuts for both fighters. Scores were 40-36 3x. After the fight, Brueckner proposed to his YouTube partner Katie, who accepted. Their channel Jatie Vlogs has 1.27 million followers.
Since when was Rios a World Champion ?
Great fight. I did not know either of them before this fight. But Logan Paul clearly won. What Jack Reiss did was a disgrace. 2 POINTS deducted in a 6 round fight for nothing?? Even worse than that was the fact that he then gave KSI 5 minutes to recover from a knockdown. Inexcusable. Even with the 2 points I had Logan Paul ahead 56-55. This is a big deal. Maybe not to 2 YouTube stars but to everyday boxers. This changes peoples lives.
Nah, KSI won the fight 4 rounds to 2. Paul didn’t do shit all fight and never even threw his right hand.
He took two points cause he could’ve DQ Logan. Nonetheless, I was entertained by the fight
Sour grapes
Really entertaining bout between Logan Paul & KSI! Jack Reiss is usually a very good ref, but tonight he absolutely sucked. It’s as if Paul & KSI showed their respect for the sport of Boxing by taking their bout serious, while Reiss treated the bout as something less than legitimate. Reiss did a disservice to both men; he missed the knockdown of Paul by KSI, and then he deducts not one but two points (TWO POINTS!) from Paul for hitting KSI when he was down. Turns out that second point was the difference and gave KSI an undeserved victory. A draw would have been fine with me, though I personally believe Logan Paul did enough to be declared victor. Good fight.
liked the caps. is a 2 point deduction even in the rule book?
A intentional foul 2 point deduction is not out of the ordinary, he deducted 2 points because there were two fouls after the uppercut that rocked KSI Paul held him and hit him with another uppercut then as KSI was down he hit him to the back of the head.
Tyson was deducted two points for the ear bite sure there is a difference between getting your ear bitten off and the two fouls committed by Paul but keep in mind there were two illegal shots
in the words of Frank Drebin: never bet on the white guy
Amazing reference!
Personally, I think the fight was more like two high schoolers fighting in the backyard after school…sloppy, lack of energy. Can we get back to watching real world class fighters please?
Call me crazy, but this was a VERY good fight. I enjoyed it.
KSI has the accuracy of a lame Democrat trying to impeach the president, but he did throw the punches. I give him credit.
Politics?
2 You Tube stars headline a boxing card in Staples Center on DAZN including the info of how many followers they have on various social media sites. The night boxing truly died.
I’m a bit sad as a former boxer amateur. In two weeks I’ve seen 90 minutes waiting for the main card Canelo-Kovalev for a parallel MMA match, and then this night fight with these two YouTubers slamming as main event, a DQ in Batista_Ababiy and a half-service Haney. I think real Champs like Harry Greb and Ray Robinson are turning around in their graves. We should ask ourselves what’s the future of boxing. Nothing against big show, but I’d like to see real sports events.
Why is this a story on here?
Nice! Instead of pro boxing record they show how many youtube followers They have.. BWAHAHAHA!!!! ANNOUNCER: “IN THE RED CORNERRRR.. weighing in at 192 lbs…. His youtube following is a GREAT ONE with 20.6 million viewers.. HERE IS KSI!!!!!!!”
This was absolute garbage and shame on Eddie Hearn for promoting this thrash. Boxing has now become the Jerry Springer show. No skill or talent demonstrated