The battle for boxing supremacy between KSI and Jake Paul rumbles on, and with the PPV buys for the pair’s recent bouts revealed, there’s been a lot more fuel thrown on the fire.
After several years out of the ring, the Brit finally made his comeback on August 27. In a shocking twist, ‘The Nightmare’ collided with two opponents in one night, and stopped them both. However, neither of them made for particularly worthy opposition.
KSI opened the card against grime artist, Swarmz, who’d had less than a month’s training. Unsurprisingly, the 25-year-old looked like a fish out of water – the YouTube star stopped his overmatched opponent, before settling down to watch the rest of the bill.
The evening’s action featured a plethora of interesting fights, which left the viewers at home and inside the O2 Arena extremely entertained. And then, to top off the evening, KSI stepped through the ropes again to fight pro-boxer, Luis Alcaraz Pineda. And although the Mexican branded himself a ‘professional fighter’, that wasn’t quite the story that played out.
He was in the referee’s ear every time the social media icon landed and eventually lost via a third-round stoppage. In the aftermath of the bout, a pumped-up KSI took to the mic and called out a selection of future opponents. But despite naming some big names, the fans still want to see the fight with Paul. And now, we have a bit more clarification on who would be the A-side in a future match-up.
KSI PPV buys revealed
The Mirror revealed on Tuesday that the show drew 230,000 pay-per-view buys on DAZN in the UK, Ireland and the US. Although impressive, this number would trail below the 500,000 Paul did for his first encounter with Tyron Woodley. However, it tops the 200,000 the pair did in the rematch, as per the same source.
Since the above figure was reported, it is claimed that the ’double-paywall’ system used by DAZN may have adversely affected viewership levels. And combat sports journalist Gareth Davies claims, as per sources, the figures to actually stand at around 445,000, which was later retweeted by KSI’s manager. It does mean that Paul is ahead on this particular metric when compared with the first Woodley fight.
Therefore, the battle for who deserves what percentage of the split remains up in the air. We’ll likely have a better idea of who the financially bigger fighter is after their upcoming contests, which are scheduled to take place in the coming months.
Featured Image Credit: Getty