KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE: Event descends into chaos as Paul and Danis nearly come to blows
The pair of boxing matches will take place in London in October – but first, a press conference
The press conference for KSI vs Tommy Fury and Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis fell apart amid chaotic scenes on Tuesday, as tables were flipped, cake was thrown, and vulgar insults were traded.
YouTube stars KSI and Paul – who are business partners at the energy-drink company Prime – will fight Fury and Danis respectively in October, with both boxing matches taking place at London’s Wembley Arena.
KSI (real name Olajide Olatunji) last fought in May, seeing his controversial knockout of Joe Fournier overturned for the use of an illegal elbow. Meanwhile, Fury – half-brother of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson – beat Paul’s brother Jake on points in February. Logan Paul has mainly been involved in the WWE in recent months, though he has experience boxing, having fought Floyd Mayweather two years ago, while Danis is a former teammate of UFC icon Conor McGregor and is predominantly a jiu-jitsu specialist. He will make his boxing debut when he fights Paul.
And the four figures engaged in a chaotic press conference in London on Tuesday. Re-live updates from the press conference, below.
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
Tommy Fury, joined by his father John, is next to the stage.
Logan Paul is now on stage, and his back and forth with Danis has already started.
Paul has a poster with him, which has a screensshot from footage of Danis being choked out by a security guard last year.
KSI makes his way to the stage, and he gets the kindest crowd reaction so far.
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
Dillon Danis is not only here, he’s the first fighter to the stage!
He launches a couple of bottles of Prime through the air! “It tastes like s***,” he says.
He’s wearing a Toy Story-themed hat, which he claims he will wear when he ‘knocks out’ Logan Paul.
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
Promoter Kalle Sauerland says he expects the event in October to break every British pay-per-view record.
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
Okay, we’re under way at last!
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
Dazn is reporting that the start of the press conference has been delayed...
Fans’ minds will be wandering: What is the reason? Who is to blame? Is Dillon Danis late?
There has been a lot of fear that Danis will pull out of his fight with Paul entirely, following his withdrawal from a planned bout with KSI in January...
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
KSI’s last fight was not without its controversy.
The YouTuber’s win against Joe Fournier in May was overturned to a ‘No Decision’, after KSI was ruled to have knocked out his opponent with an elbow.
KSI, 29, dropped Fournier in Round 2 of their exhibition boxing match in London, leaving the 40-year-old ex-boxer unable to beat the referee’s count.
However, replays showed that KSI had dropped Fournier with an elbow, rather than a punch.
KSI admitted that his victory at Wembley Arena was ‘tarnished’, while Fournier soon declared that he would appeal the result, which was ultimately overturned.
More here:
KSI and Joe Fournier react as fight result is overturned
KSI’s knockout of the ex-boxer has been turned into a ‘No Decision’, after the YouTuber beat the 40-year-old with an accidental elbow
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
The press conference should begin any moment now! Don’t go anywhere.
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE
T-minus five minutes until the press conference is due to begin!
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE: Who is KSI?
Before KSI, there was Olajide Olatunji – “JJ” for short. Before the YouTuber, gamer, rapper, boxer, promoter and energy drink magnate, there was the affable class clown in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.
“I remember we did a production of Sweeney Todd,” one of his schoolmates tells The Independent. “He played the judge, and when he died at the end, he was twitching and doing the worm across the stage. Everyone was in stitches. He was funny, a nice guy – everybody liked him for that. He was popular, but not like, ‘I’m the s***’; he was confident but also a nerdy, endearing, sweet guy.”
With those qualities, JJ was tailor made for YouTube, where he launched his channel ‘KSIOlajideBT’ in 2009 – four years after the platform’s inception. Fifteen years old at the time, JJ quickly garnered a following by filming himself playing Fifa – the famous football video game – at his parents’ house in Watford. His bewitching cackle was a key feature in each upload. “He always had that very distinctive laugh,” his schoolmate recalls. “I remember that. He would laugh at something during morning registration, and the teachers would be like, ‘JJ, please!’”
By the end of 2009, Olatunji had amassed 1,000 subscribers. That number had tripled by the end of 2010, and Olatunji’s growth accelerated at a startling pace in 2011, as he reached 150,000 subscribers, and in 2012, when he crossed the million mark. JJ had become KSI – standing for ‘Knowledge Strength Integrity’ – and he would soon become arguably the most famous YouTuber in Britain.
More on his journey, here:
KSI, from ‘endearing’ class clown to YouTuber who has changed the face of boxing
Britain’s biggest YouTube personality has gone from gaming to rapping to boxing – among other ventures, Alex Pattle explains
KSI vs Tommy Fury press conference LIVE: Start time and how to watch
KSI also used his “Good Morning Britain” screentime to make an important point about his energy drink, Prime – which he launched alongside Logan Paul.
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