KSI vs Logan Paul: A Fistful of Dollars

KSI vs Logan Paul: A Fistful of Dollars

All the mainstream attention this week should have been on one fight, but sadly as ever, the dollar has spoken.

On Thursday we witnessed everything that is right with boxing, later today in many ways we will see everything that is wrong with it.

The World Boxing Super Series, not for the first time, gave us a fight few of us will forget. An old champion spitting out one last act of defiance to a potential superstar, very nearly pulled off an unlikely upset in Japan.

But Naoya Inoue survived a real scare against Nonito Donaire, in a fight that will help cement the legacy of both.

But as we saw not so long ago, a great fight has been overshadowed by a circus coming to a town elsewhere. When Conor McGregor decided logic and common sense didn’t apply to him, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez had to play a supporting role to his fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Sadly for many, we are here again, but in even more extreme and bizarre circumstances. KSI and Logan Paul are just hours away from making their professional debuts in the main event of a PPV card in Los Angeles.

Neither are boxers, at least not in the traditional sense, but both will be gloved up for one purpose. The money wheel will be spinning, and it might not stop for some considerable time, it’s the only reason why we are here, at least nobody is trying to tell us any different.

Everything has to evolve to stay relevant or even in some cases to survive. Tonight boxing will go through some trial evolution process, many will hope the experiment fails.

Everyone in business wants to make money, and all involved tonight will undoubtedly do that, dirty money to some, but it’s money and plenty of it.

KSI and Logan Paul are incredibly successful in their own world, but they are now entering our world, but it’s the genuine hardcore boxing fans that feel like the intruders.

While Inoue and Donaire went under the radar to the masses, the so called YouTube sensations have all the major boxing outlets hanging on every swear word they utter. The never ending search for views must go on as we are told to embrace and learn, acceptance is another thing altogether.

Shannon Briggs is back in the spotlight, I never thought his pointless ‘let’s go champ’ could get more annoying, but it has. If his involvement was to add some kind of credibility to the show, in reality its achieved the exact opposite.

The fight I have no doubt will be entertaining, at least in some strange way, but boxing it isn’t. Yes they will bring eyes to the sport, but how many of them will continue to look after the latest circus has left town.

Will the millions of subscribers who like this particular brand of showbiz, have enough interest in the likes of Billy Joe Saunders to stick around for more, I seriously doubt it.

I don’t completely hate the fight, but I hate the scale of the whole thing. Saunders and Devin Haney have no right having their names sitting below KSI and Paul. But they will be well compensated for the indignity, if they don’t care then why should we.

But there is something so wrong with it all, we should care that it takes something like this to bring this much attention to the sport, there are major fundamental problems if we need this.

Logan Paul has issued a come and get me plea to Dana White, and with White having already deciding ex WWE star CM Punk was twice worthy of a PPV spot, you know White will probably make that call. That is the problem with what we are being served up tonight, what comes next, where will it lead, not down the path of credibility that’s for sure.

Photo Credit: Amanda Westcott / DAZN