KSI vs Logan Paul: Battle of YouTube stars ends in draw – as it happened
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Your support makes all the difference.In front of 18,000 fans at the Manchester Arena, YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul shared the spoils after six rounds of tense white-collar boxing.
While many may pour scorn on a matchup between two amateurs, more than 800,000 streamed the event, billed as the “biggest event in internet history”, at its peak.
At least a half a million more watched on illegal streams, despite the attempts of the organisers to quash them.
The match was the second bout for KSI, who defeated Joe Weller in front of a 7,000-strong sellout in London’s Copper Box Arena back in February.
Fans not able to make it to Manchester for the fight had to pay £7.50 ($10) for the privilege of watching a live stream of the action.
:: Chris Stokel-Walker (CSW) reporting live from the MEN Arena and Adam Hamdani (AH) following all the online reaction
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More than a quarter of a million pounds of bets on the outcome of the event had been taken by British bookmakers by Saturday afternoon, The Independent can exclusively reveal.
“We were blown away by the numbers we saw after KSI's last fight, but that pales in significance in truth, with interest from a betting perspective likely to hit £300,000 by close of play on Saturday night,” said Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati.
It was always going to be a momentous night. The last, first, YouTube boxing match held back in February at London's Copper Box Arena broke ground. And the involvement of Jake and Logan Paul, two of the site's biggest names, was bound to make this bigger.
The venue was bigger, but there was a question mark involved in the KSI/Logan Paul fight: would people pay good money to watch what may be a spectacle, but was and always would be sub-par boxing?
They did - more than 820,000 of them at their peak, each paying $10. At least a half a million more watched on illegal streams, despite the attempts of the organisers to quash them.
If anyone was in any doubt about YouTube's place in society after 1.8m watched February's bout for free, perhaps they'll pay attention now viewers have spent more than $8 million - plus ticket and merchandise sales - on small screen superstars. (CSW)
The first tweet post-fight from Deji, the younger brother of KSI who earlier lost to Jake Paul. A fighter's words (kinda). (AH)
What an event.
An event that peaked at a live viewership of 837,000 people. The biggest of its kind and by some distance.
It will certainly happen again in the new year, with KSI and Logan Paul calling for the rematch - which will likely happen in America.
For now, we're done, so here's a picture of both fighters looking confused that they didn't win (and also not understanding what a majority draw means). Thanks for tuning in! (AH + CSW)
KSI and Logan Paul after draw
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