YouTube star KSI has hit back at Jake Paul after his long-time rival branded him and his team "unprofessional" amid the breakdown in fight talks between the two.
The biggest fight in YouTube boxing is between Paul and KSI, after the Brit defeated his older brother Logan back in 2019 leading to an heated feud between the pair. But they have never been able to come to a deal, with their latest negotiations hitting a snag of late.
Paul, who is currently booked to fight Nate Diaz on August 5, claims that he wants the bout but that he is unable to work with KSI and his manager Mams Taylor. But the YouTuber disagrees with the take, noting that he has been pushing hard for the bout and insisting that his rival has not made the same effort on his end.
" Jake Paul? F*** him, innit," KSI told Mirror Fighting in response to an interview with the American a day prior. "F*** Jake Paul, it's so funny, my man was just coming at me with all this bulls*** like 'yeah, let's fight JJ,' and I'm like 'let's go' and he's run. He doesn't want anything and he's making excuses.
"I'm kind of sick and tired so I'm like 'alright, if I can't directly destroy Jake Paul let me indirectly destroy everything he's built'. Look at his 'boxing career'!"
In a chat with Mirror Fighting on Tuesday evening, Paul said that he found it difficult to deal with KSI and his team, claiming they weren't interested in doing legitimate business. He insisted Taylor, who runs Misfits Boxing along with his client as well as guiding him to the top of the music charts, is more interested in his own brand than running a successful promotion.
"It's more so the games that they play," he explained. "They're not professional businessmen. They're running their whole WWE-like Misfits thing with fake tag team boxing, they're more interested in spectacles and bulls*** than getting a fight done and actually doing proper business or knowing how to negotiate.
"This guy Mams Taylor [KSI's manager] is going around wearing cowboy hats looking like a f***ing idiot. He thinks he's an influencer all of a sudden, he's not a proper businessman. So that's really what it is, and I truly, truly have bigger goals than fighting KSI. I think Tommy was a bigger fight than KSI, I think Nate is a bigger fight than KSI, he's kind of lost steam - he's 30-years-old [KSI is 29, turning 30 next month] and the gig is kind of up."
But KSI was flabbergasted by these comments, noting that he feels it isn't professional to take aim at a potential co-promoter in such a way. "Unprofessional, me?" He asked. "What did Jake say about my manager? How is that professional? Jake is doing a runner, he doesn't want it.
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"He was being like 'yeah, yeah I want to fight KSI' but when it came to actually doing it he doesn't want any part of it. So I'm glad his fanbase, my fans, the general public know that he's full of s***. With him he's always trying to change the goalposts. He's trying to be like 'we'll fight in the UK, actually I don't want to fight in the UK any more'.
"Then he does 'it has to be signed by the British Boxing Board of Control, actually I don't want to do that any more'. It's constantly just that he moves the goalposts. I'm there, ready, I want to fight but he just doesn't want it so I've been saying it for time that I want to fight Jake Paul.
"That was the sole reason I came back to boxing, and I think he knows that and that's why he wants to avoid me. He knows as soon as I get to that goal that he's done and I have become victorious and my legacy will live on forever and he will be constantly reminded that he's the guy that lost to KSI.
"He'll be the guy that wanted to avenge Logan Paul and failed, he'll just be seen as this guy that's lost and won't know what to do again and what, he'll try to go back to Disney? Or maybe go back to trying to make s****y YouTube vlogs? I don't know."
