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YouTube personality KSI insists he can hold his own back in the ring as he prepares to face both Slim Albaher and Anthony Taylor in a two-on-one tag-team contest in Dublin.
KSI – who has become a successful entrepreneur and musician with more than 24million followers on YouTube and 13m on Instagram – is making a return following a majority defeat by Tommy Fury in Manchester during October 2023.
Both Taylor and Albaher have crossed over from MMA, and hold Misfits Boxing belts.
Super-middleweight champion Albaher is unbeaten in seven boxing fights, while Taylor is a Misfits light-heavyweight champion.
The thinking behind the two-on-one contest was neither man would provide a big enough pay-per-view audience to take on KSI by themselves.
Monday’s press conference in London was a feisty affair, with all three men trading expletive insults before a bizarre face-off in a cage with a glass screen separating KSI from his opponents – all while the Briton raised his middle finger as he was being goaded by the pair.
KSI, though, remained confident he can hold his own.
“I am not going to say breeze through. I feel like Slim…I will breeze through, but AT will be a bit more difficult,” KSI said.
“AT is a guy that is hard to hit clean. He is a bit of a messy fighter and loves a clinch.
“I just need to work him down and just do my thing.”
KSI – whose real name is Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji – added: “I am on a different level and playing field anyway.”
MMA veteran Taylor insisted KSI had only “fought bums” but the Briton maintained he could stand toe to toe with his rivals.
“Have you ever seen me ever knocked out?” KSI said. “I have been hit by Logan Paul but I wasn’t knocked out.
“I have been hit by Tommy Fury and I wasn’t knocked out. Tommy Fury, a professional fighter who has been doing it all his life, couldn’t knock me out.”
In a number of flamboyant outbursts, Taylor was full of confidence he could deliver a knockout blow on the 31-year-old.
“At the end of the day, KSI is going to be my easiest opponent,” said Taylor, who is on a two-fight win streak following victories over Salt Papi and King Kenny. “That stupid karate stance ain’t going to do s***.”
Albaher, meanwhile, stressed he would be providing a “whole different level” of opponent for KSI as the main attraction of the X Series event on August 31, which will be held at the 3Arena in Dublin.
“I always outperform you on every single card,” Albaher said.
“I have been chasing you and didn’t take any fights this year because I wanted to fight you. I said no to 10 fights because I said ‘I want KSI’.
“I respect what you have done on YouTube and stuff, but as a boxer, you ain’t s**t bro.”
