YouTube star KSI has had a personal grudge against his new opponent Swarmz dating back to a song the pair did together.
The British duo will fight on August 27 after Alex Wassabi pulled out of his scheduled bout with his YouTube rival, much to the dismay of KSI's fans. Jake Paul had publicly offered to make a gruelling cut to 180lb and take the fight for free on short notice, but KSI opted instead to hold off on making that bout until next year when they can promote it for a major stadium.
And KSI's manager Mams Taylor has now explained that the YouTube star has had an issue with Swarmz over his lack of professionalism when the pair worked together on the song Houdini in 2020. The song was KSI's highest charting at the time, reaching a peak of No.6, and the pair were scheduled for a number of appearances together.
But Taylor told in a recent social media video of how Swarmz would reportedly show up late, or not at all, for events. "They have a genuine dislike for each other first of all," Taylor explained of the issues between the two.
"Swarmz and JJ [Olatunji, KSI's real name] did a song together and then Swarmz decided not to show up to an event that he committed to show up to. That was disrespect No.1, and No.2 was that he showed up three hours later for something, so JJ does not like this man.
"They have a private beef that has not gone public, really, and Swarmz does not like JJ for whatever reason. So at the end of the day, be under no disillusion - there is no friendship here and Swarmz would eat Alex Wassabi alive for breakfast, lunch, dinner, starters, dessert, whatever, he would kill him, and bash Nate Robinson [Jake Paul's second professional opponent] in two seconds."
The falling out did briefly go public during a Tik Tok live stream when the rapper called out KSI earlier this year, declaring that he would "smoke" his former pal. He was then reportedly contracted as the back-up opponent for the Brit in the case of Wassabi pulling out, which he did with a concussion last week.
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"I want KSI," Swarmz told fans on a live stream. "I'd win, bro, I'd smoke him. I'm a big man, I've smoked man on the road, bro and I would smoke him." KSI responded at the time, declaring that he was levels above, but agreed to give him the opportunity if the fight was cancelled.
Speaking in a video yesterday about the new bout, which will headline The O2 arena in London on August 27, KSI said: "Bro, he's been calling me out and obviously I replied to it like 'Swarmz what are you doing? You're not going to smoke me.
"But we were like 'f*** it, we'll put you on the back-burner and we'll see what happens, but I doubt we'll ever fight. Alex Wassabi pulls out and then we'll fight you, lol, whatever.'
"Three weeks out I'm thinking 'shit' and now I've got to fight Swarmz? Nah fam, s***. Look, Swarmz says he'd smoke me, so let's see, let's find out. Now we get to find out, Alex said he'd smoke me and he pulled out of the fight - at least Swarmz is getting into the ring, I have no respect for Alex Wassabi, f*** Alex, bro."
