Alex Wassabi believes his YouTube rival KSI has only pushed to face him because he views it as an "easy fight".
The pair will meet on August 27 at The O2 arena in London, with Wassabi a huge underdog for their meeting despite beating his younger brother Deji in his last outing. KSI and Wassabi have had a long-standing rivalry dating back to when the Brit make his boxing debut back in 2018, and will finally settle it next month.
And the American has been training intensively at the Brickhouse Boxing Club in California, setting up for his second career fight, and KSI's fourth. He will come up in weight to around 180lb, which is 9lb more than his last fight, where he claimed to be pushing his limits in terms of comfort.
"In the YouTube boxing world people always want to pick people they can easily beat," Wassabi said during an interview with The WADE Concept. "They go 'this will be easy', why? Don't you want to have a challenge? Why would you do all of this training for something that's going to be easy.
"That's why I called out what most people say is the biggest and baddest in YouTube boxing. I call him 'big Deji' because he's doing the exact same thing as regular-sized Deji; he is making me go to London, move up in weight - they're both just looking for an easy fight.
"I was 162lb, I moved up to 171lb for Deji, now I have to go to 180lb. I'm working on it but it's hard sometimes. Regular-sized Deji had lost his two fights so he needed an easy fight, big Deji hasn't fought in three years so he needs an easy fight, I just don't share that view. I don't want easy fights, I want to go all in, I want to fight, so I'm just glad I was able to get this thing."
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Wassabi won a split decision over Deji in London, although on a night of questionable calls including one bout being given an unprecedented re-score days later it was deemed a comfortable victory. But he faces a very different beast in KSI, who stopped Joe Weller before drawing with and ultimately beating Logan Paul before taking a break from the sport.
KSI is eyeing up a fight with Jake Paul after two tune-up bouts, the first of which he believes will be against Wassabi. The rivals were supposed to square off in 2020 after the younger Paul beat his pal AnEsonGib, but the coronavirus pandemic put paid to those plans.
In the meantime, Jake continued to train and emerged from the pandemic with a 5-0 professional record that includes stoppage wins over MMA champions like Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley. Meanwhile, KSI focused more on his music career, releasing two chart-topping albums and a host of top 10 singles.
