KSI vs Logan Paul: Battle of YouTube stars ends in draw – as it happened

We bring you every jab, hook and diss track, while attempting to put this new media monstrosity in context...

KSI vs Logan Paul weigh in

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.

Key Points

• How to watch the fight
• How did we get here?
• Trash talking commences
• Rematch talks already

[25 August 2018 18:58 · stokel]

Anyone offering odds on a kick being thrown in this fight involving the kickboxer? (CSW)

[25 August 2018 19:02 · Adam Hamdani]

A pretty even first round. FaZe Sensei takes it with a 10-9. (AH)

[25 August 2018 19:04 · Adam Hamdani]

FaZe Sensei lands well on overtflow and the referee gives it a standing count. The eye of overtflow swells up quite badly and you can see it's making a bit of a difference.

Sensei takes the second with a 10-8. (AH)

[25 August 2018 19:05 · Adam Hamdani]

As pointed out already, many are having issues with the live stream. (AH)

[25 August 2018 19:06 · stokel]

I think it's fair to say that until that takedown, the crowd here in Manchester had a bit of fight fatigue. 

Lots of boos here for FaZe being naughty. (CSW)

[25 August 2018 19:09 · Adam Hamdani]

A bizarre moment in the second as overtflow basically jumps on tope of FaZe Sensei and both men tumble to the canvas.

Sensei then calls a big body shot and as the saying goes 'he talked the talk and then walked the walk', knocking his opponent to the floor twice before the fight is waved off by the referee.

The first knockout win of the evening and a genuinely classy performance from Sensei. (AH)

[25 August 2018 19:14 · stokel]

Did FaZe Sensei just give away a state secret in his post-match interview with the True Geordie? 

He said he'd like to have a PRIDE-style MMA rematch in New York - one of the mooted venues for the return bout of Logan Paul vs KSI... (CSW)

[25 August 2018 19:20 · Adam Hamdani]

Plenty of history has already been made tonight, so clearly he's speaking about something else... (AH)

[25 August 2018 19:21 · stokel]

Congratulations: you've made it with us to basically the halfway point. We're expecting Deji versus Jake Paul in about an hour, and Logan Paul versus KSI in 90 minutes. (CSW)

[25 August 2018 19:24 · Adam Hamdani]

Rackaracka versus Scarce is next up and again, we’re really lamenting the lack of Michael Buffer until the big matches.

Scarce is an interesting one and requires a little context and explanation as to how YouTube truly is another world.

As a self-sustaining media ecosystem, YouTube has its own news reporters (of sort) who cover the industry’s gossip. Think of them like the TMZ of the online video world.

The big player – the BBC or the Sky of YouTube – is a man who goes by the name of Keemstar, who runs the DramaAlert channel. He’s actually in attendance in the front row, flying over from the United States specifically for the fight.

Scarce is kind of the ITV News: watched by fewer people, this is an attempt to garner a bigger audience. (CSW)