“People would rather talk about a couple of YouTube dick heads.”
WBO interim featherweight champion Carl Frampton has said that more people were interested in watching the recent fight between YouTube creators KSI [Olajide William “JJ” Olatunji] and Logan Paul at the Manchester Arena than actual world title fights.
According to Polygon, more than 860,000 people paid $10/£7.50 to watch Logan Paul and KSI’s fight with nearly 20,000 in attendance on the night of the fight. By comparison, ESPN’s most-watched fight this summer was Bryant Jennings 9th round TKO over Alexander Dimitrenko earlier this month which attracted an estimated 686,000 viewers.
Frampton retained the WBO interim featherweight title against Luke Jackson earlier this month in front of a sell out crowd at Windsor Park in Belfast but he had some sympathy for WBO super bantamweight champion Isaac Dogboe who defended his belt against Hidenori Otake at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday in the co-main event of an ESPN-televised card.
“@IsaacDogboe made a successful first defence of his super bantam title with a 1st round demolition of the seriously tough Otake last night.
“A proper champion who went on a world tour before he got his shot. But today people would rather talk about a couple of YouTube dick heads.”
@IsaacDogboe made a successful first defence of his super bantam title with a 1st round demolition of the seriously tough Otake last night. A proper champion who went on a world tour before he got his shot. But today people would rather talk about a couple of YouTube dick heads
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) August 26, 2018
Former super middleweight contender Paul Smith Jr. said that the fight was not boxing while MMA journalist Ariel Helwani referred to the fight as ‘bollocks’.
However, former WBA lightweight champion Anthony Crolla commended the two fighters and their business acumen.
“Seeing a lot of people’s opinions on the KSI v Logan match later,” Crolla wrote on his Twitter account before the fight.
“No matter what you’ve gotta give them boys credit. What they’ve created is unreal and to sell the Manchester Arena out and the the buys there gonna get on YouTube is unreal. Absolute businessmen!!!”
