by Joseph Sweeney | staff writer
If I learned anything from my year long venture in AP Human Geography, it would be that we must ask ourselves, Where is it? Why is it there? and Why should we care?, and unfortunately for us, I am not able to answer those questions. The Sylvester Stallone classic “Rocky II” hit the theaters over 40 years ago, and now the movie’s setting seems to have finally hit reality as YouTube stars Olajide “KSI” Olutunji Jr and Logan Paul have just faced off in a rematch similar to that of the Italian Stallion and Master of Disaster of themselves, though what made the formers a massive hit is personally beyond me.
The celebrity beef started up last year, when, in February, YouTube gamer and part-time musician KSI defeated fellow internet celebrity Joe Weller in a white-collar boxing match to become the self declared YouTube boxing champion. Soon, KSI would challenge the famed Paul brothers to a bout in the ring. The brothers, Logan Paul; famous for his skits posted on the now defunct Vine platform, as well as for sharing footage of a dead man in a Japanese suicide forest; and his younger brother Jake, a “rapper” famous for his song “It’s Everyday Bro”, accepted to the bout on the terms that Paul would square off against KSI, while the younger Jake would face KSI’s younger brother, Deji. The elder’s match, being held last August, ended in a tie and almost immediately led to talks of a rematch, which took place last Saturday, where KSI retained his champion statues.
Both matches were obviously held as publicity stunts, which Paul definitely needed in order to recover from his suicide forest incident, though seeing as that incident was over a year and a half ago, it seems like this second stunt is hardly necessary, all in order to garner more views to the star’s respective channels. On the online news aggregator Reddit, users seem all too happy to post about the rematch, even though they claim they couldn’t care one bit about the fight to begin with. The publicity was able to garner up millions of more views and subscribers for both stars, as Paul reached 20 million sub’s on Saturday, the day of the match, while KSI reached 20.6 million subscribers last Friday, and 20.7 million on Sunday. And while you readers may think that I’m just spreading the word even further, which I am, I only learned all this so that you wouldn’t have to!
The bout ended in a split decision ruling slightly in KSI’s favor, which Paul acknowledged as due to an incident in round four where he punched KSI in the face while he was still down, and so Paul was deducted two points. KSI has now stated that he doesn’t wish for another rematch to occur, though Jake Paul has been eyeing to avenge his brother in the ring, bringing our boxing world closer to a “Creed II” style fight, rather than like “Rocky III”.
To put it in simpler terms, I don’t understand why these two are famous, how they managed to find success in their careers, nor why people find it entertaining to watch an obviously faked drama play out on a $6 pay per view match. But honestly, it’s there, so why not have some fun with this/ I only have one last thing to say: Mr. T, wherever you may be, you better not take pity on these fools.
