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KSI could be Jake Paul’s boogeyman.
At least that’s how KSI’s manager and Misfits Boxing co-founder Mams Taylor sees it.
Taylor appeared on The MMA Hour ahead of KSI’s headlining bout against Tommy Fury on the PRIME Card this Saturday in Manchester, England, and claimed that there were plans made between he and Paul’s manager Nakisa Bidarian for the two influencers to box one another, but Paul wasn’t interested.
“The guy doesn’t want to fight him,” Taylor said. “Honest to God, yeah, I believe that he didn’t know what he wants and he’s conflicted. There are times where Jake really believes he wants to fight KSI, and he’s like, ‘Screw this, let’s put this to bed and let’s do this.’ I believe he thinks that. And then other things get in the way or maybe because Jake doesn’t have as many things going on as KSI — who’s got PRIME and Misfits Boxing and a whole host of other things — if Jake fights KSI and loses to KSI, that’s it for him. It’s done. Where does he go from there? He’s going to have to start playing volleyball or darts or something. I think he’s got a lot more to lose in that sense. So maybe he was hesitant for that reason.
“Because if he really wanted to fight, we had 99 percent of the terms agreed, Nakisa and myself. … I even tweeted this fight will happen this year. It was going to happen in December at a [Principality Stadium] in Cardiff, 90,000 people. [The PRIME card] wouldn’t have happened. We booked the stadium. We had the date, Dec. 13 or something. Nakisa said that Jake changed his mind. We even offered to move it forward to do it on this date, around this date, October or whatever, and then Nakisa called me after the Tommy fight and said, ‘Hey, Jake’s changed his mind. I want him to fight KSI. I think it makes sense for him after losing to Tommy, he should fight KSI, but Jake says he wants a bigger name and someone who he can prove himself more against.’
“And no disrespect to Nate [Diaz], he’s incredible. Someone I’ve grown up watching and being entertained by. I’m a fan. I’m not disrespecting Nate, but I don’t think he’s a tougher opponent than KSI in the boxing ring at all.”
Paul stepped into the ring twice in 2023, opening the year with a split decision loss to Fury in February and then bouncing back with a unanimous decision win over former UFC star Nate Diaz in August. He is 7-1 as a pro boxer, with notable wins over MMA standouts Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren.
Both Paul and KSI both built their fame on YouTube and social media, garnering millions of followers before making the move into combat sports. It was KSI and Paul’s older brother Logan Paul who kicked off the influencer boxing craze when the two fought in an amateur bout in 2018 that ended in a majority draw. The event reportedly drew well over 1,000,000 pay-per-view buys.
Given their current stature in the influencer boxing space, a matchup between Jake and KSI seemed inevitable, but Taylor thinks his business partner can only wait for so long.
“KSI wanted Jake Paul,” Taylor said. “He really wanted Jake Paul. This is the one we’ve all wanted, the whole community, the whole scene has wanted this, even before I was a part of it. … But listen, I’m in the KSI business. I’m in the Misfits Boxing business, so I take it seriously and do my research. Of course, this is the logical fight after the Logan and KSI fight. It’s been impossible to make that fight, and it’s not been for a lack of effort from our side. They’ve teeter-tottered between, ‘Oh, Jake wants to go the pro boxing route, Jake wants to fight a tougher challenge, Jake wants to do this, Jake wants to do that.’ [Then they’ll say,] ‘OK, let’s do the fight,’ and then change their mind again. So it’s really been a case of us being frustrated and trying to make this happen. … It’s really not a lack of effort from our side. It’s really not shame on us, because how many times can you try?”
“You can’t just give in to everything these guys want, and it’s so much game-playing and it’s exhausting,” Taylor continued. “It got to the point where we said, ‘OK, Jake’s lost this fight,’ and KSI’s like, ‘I want Tommy Fury.’ We were negotiating with Tommy, and he was like, ‘Why haven’t we signed this?’ And we were stuck on the weight. We were going to do 180, that was agreed initially verbally and then Tommy’s side was like, 185. We’re like, there’s no way, so he’s like ,‘183 take it or leave it, we’ll just have KSI fight a smaller guy.’ At least they were direct, ‘We can’t do this if it’s under 183.’
“So I told KSI, he’s like, ‘I’m taking this fight. I don’t care what anyone says. I want to fight Tommy Fury.’ So he put his foot down on that and we will settle. Let’s give it some more time, see what happens, it’s a big payday for everyone, and KSI’s like, ‘No. I don’t want to wait. I want to fight him. I want to have this goal in my head so I can start my camp.’”
KSI seeks his fifth boxing success in as many appearances when he meets Fury (9-0, 4 KOs) this Saturday. In his most recent fight this past May, KSI saw a spectacular second-round knockout of Joe Fournier overturned to a no-contest when replays showed that the finishing sequence was the result of an accidental illegal elbow.
Fury, on the other hand, is coming off of the February win over Jake Paul and now seeks to silence another YouTuber-turned-boxer. For Taylor, KSI defeating Fury is a roundabout way for KSI to show up “The Problem Child.”
“[KSI] goes for it fearlessly and he wanted to fight Jake,” Taylor said. “That was one of the reasons he got back into boxing. He wanted to have some warm-up fights, get back on the level where he feels confident. Jake had a head start. KSI was doing music, Jake was focusing on boxing, and KSI’s like, ‘No, I want to fight Jake. Let’s go for this aggressively.’ So we really did.
“When he saw that this was just not going to happen with Jake’s team, he said, ‘Well, logically for me to beat the guy who beat Jake is the best way I can go. That’s beating Jake without even fighting him.”
Steven Marrocco contributed to this story.
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