KSI’s boxing career is over
KSI won’t be putting on the gloves again.
The social media influencer hasn’t boxed since a 2023 loss to Tommy Fury, and he announced on The Ranveer Show that his fighting days are behind him. In the interview, the 32-year-old discussed why he fell out of love with boxing, why he’s turning his focus back to content creation going forward, and why a big-money fight with Jake Paul never materialized despite KSI allegedly receiving an eight-figure offer.
“I think everyone has a bad side, but it’s whether you want to tap into that, and for me, I don’t want to do that,” KSI said. “I felt like I had to when I was boxing. I felt like I had to be the nightmare and with that to sell a fight you have to do stuff to get people to want to watch. You have to find ways to bring that emotion out of people and I did some horrible things when I was doing the whole boxing thing. But that’s the fight game and I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t like it.”
“I didn’t even gain much from the material stuff. My fight with Tommy Fury, all the money I made, I gave it to my trainers. All of it. For me, I don’t do stuff for this. I’ve been offered $3o million to fight Jake Paul. These guys can’t give me any amount of money to fight this guy. When it comes to boxing, I’m done. I tried. My main goal when I got into the boxing ring again was to fight Jake Paul and build Misfits. Build Misfits, try to fight Jake Paul time and time and time again, it’s just excuse after excuse after excuse. Instead of Tommy Fury, I was there ready to fight Jake Paul. I was ready, I was there, let’s go, and instead he fought Nate Diaz. Then at that point, I had to fight Tommy Fury. I think I tried to build up again to try and fight Jake again, and then he was just getting heavier and heavier and heavier trying to move the goal posts when it comes to weight. Then it got to the point where it was like, what am I doing? I’m done.”
KSI is a pivotal figure of the influencer boxing boom, having first stepped into the ring in 2018 when he defeated Joe Weller to set up a fight with fellow YouTube star Logan Paul. In August of that year, KSI and Paul met in an amateur boxing bout that recorded a reported 1.3 million buys (at a price of $10 USD). Paul’s brother Jake, also a YouTuber and actor, later committed to becoming a professional boxer and the rest is history.
For KSI, the seven-year journey reached its logical conclusion after the Fury loss.
“I’d say it started from the Tommy Fury fight, after I lost that fight,” KSI said. “I was definitely quite a bit lost and then over a few months, years, I was like, alright, let me try and get back into boxing, but my heart wasn’t really in it and it didn’t work out. Eventually, I just got to a point where I was getting ready to fight Dillon Danis. My hand was f*cked up. I felt like shit. My body was broken. I was like, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ Why am I putting myself through hell when there’s something I purely enjoy, something I enjoy so much more, and that’s making content.”
One of the founders of Misfits Boxing, KSI remains committed to helping grow the influencer boxing promotion, but don’t expect him to step back into that ring again anytime soon.
KSI fought eight times, including his amateur bouts, and for now, he’s had enough of the grind.
“I’d say the training, how physically and mentally draining it is, it’s just like nothing else,” KSI said. “I’d say of everything I’ve done in my life, that is the hardest thing. Think about it. You’ve got a 12-week camp. You’ve got a fight date. You’re like, ‘Cool, let me start. I feel good. I feel pumped. I feel ready.’ First day, you train, you feel good. Like, ‘Oh wow, that was great.’ And then train again. So I’m training twice a day, OK, I still feel good. Second day, train twice a day, ‘Wow, I feel great.’ This happens over and over again. End of the week I’m like, ‘Oh man, I feel really good. There’s no problems, anything.’ Sparring went well, maybe I was a little tired, stamina wasn’t up to standard, but I’m there.
“Next week, do it again. This time, you’re getting up not so easily. Your back hurts. Your legs hurt a bit more and you’re thinking, ‘OK, this is a little bit harder than it was last week.’ Sparring, not doing as well. The stamina, the fitness is really starting to get to you. Third week, you’re waking up and you’re like, ‘Oh man, OK. I’ve got to do this again.’ And then you look at the fight date and you go, ‘I’ve got several weeks of this and I’m already feeling it.’ By the seventh or eighth week, you’re like, ‘Why am I doing this? I hate this. This is horrible.’ I’m getting beat up. I don’t even want to get up anymore. I fell ill, like, my body is starting to shut down because you’re just feeling sick. But you just have to fight through it. Every day, the same thing over and over and over again. And then think of it, that’s physically. Mentally, you’re just there. Cooked.”
KSI will undoubtedly continue to be front and center when it comes to entertainment opportunities—he made a memorable appearance at WrestleMania 39 alongside foe-turned-friend Logan Paul—but as far as competitive contests go, he’s getting off of that roller-coaster.
“And then when you get there it’s like, ‘Alright, cool, I’m at the fight. Oh no, why am I nervous? Oh my God, there’s so many people around,’” KSI said. There’s so many people depending on me. I’ve got people betting on me. I’ve got people telling me that they’re betting on me, being like, ‘Bro, I’m betting, like, 10K. I really need you to win this’ and all of that pressure getting heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier and then you have to walk out. Even if your legs are jelly, you have to walk out, face your opponent, and then fight them.
“Yes, you win, fantastic. Best feeling ever. Euphoric. You’re over the moon. You lose, ‘What a waste of my f*cking time. What a waste. I literally spent 12 weeks of my life killing myself to not get the result I wanted.”
Category: General Sports
