The general reaction to celebrities playing sports isn’t gigantic. I can’t say there’s ever been a time where I’ve thought “Wow, I really want to see two movie stars go head-to-head on the soccer field.” However, fighting is quite different. Whatever makes people gather and stare on a street corner when two people brawl in public seems to be the same thing that got people excited for last Saturday’s fight between KSI and Logan Paul. The YouTube superstars fought valiantly in their highly anticipated rematch, this time with KSI being victorious via split decision.
Some boxing fans were quite upset at the match due to the lack of skill in that specific fight, which was made the main fight in an event that had world champions fighting. What I think they’re missing is that in the end everybody won. Fans of these YouTubers paid the pay-per-view price to watch the fight and also watched real world champions in the process. Devin Haney, the WBC lightweight champion and Billy Joe Saunders, the WBO super middleweight champion, were fighting opponents on Saturday, Nov. 9 alongside these internet personalities.
New audiences like the ones these celebrity YouTubers bring actually help the sport of boxing a lot. It’s not the traditional TV or pay-per-view model that’s going to keep boxing going; it’s the “like, share, and subscribe” days now.
