KSI vs. Logan Paul II: Good for boxing? 100%.

Your hatred of King Eddie Hearn will get you no where, lads.

Like it, loathe it, call it a disgrace to boxing, call it whatever. KSI vs. Logan Paul II is good for boxing, and good for combat sports as a whole — and heres why:

I fell in love with boxing in 2007. I was 10-years-old, and my best friends Dad was talking about how Ricky Hatton was gonna knockout Floyd Mayweather in Vegas. I was aware of the sport, of course, but I was 10-years-old. Football was king.

But after being woken up at 4am, watching the lights and the glamour of the event, I was hooked, and I’ve been hooked ever since. It wasn’t the fight alone that did it, I was watching Floyd Mayweather it wasn’t exactly exciting for a kid to watch. Looking back with more knowledge now, I fully appreciate Floyd as a genius of the ring, but at that age there was something about the sport that sparked something in my head.

All it took was that one fight, and boxing had a new fan.

Since watching that fight, I started watching old fights, asking my Dad, an Irishman, about the sport, who his favourite fighters were. Guys like Steve Collins (obviously), Christ Eubank (stupendous), Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield. Me and my brother bought Fight Night Round 3 and I learned about Lennox Lewis and Pernell Whittaker, and my favourite fighter of all time — Roy Jones Jr.

All it took was that one fight. And it was a fight in which Hatton lost. He was taken to school Floyd and knocked out. Supporting the British guy I should have been gutted.

But I wasn’t.

I was shown the beauty of combat sports, the fashion that goes with it, the glamour, the celebrities at ringside, the emotions you feel when someone you want to win a fight having their ups and his downs in a fight. The ecstasy I felt when Hatton landed on Mayweather and backed him into the ropes is a feeling that stuck with me. As a fan of boxing, I want people who are more alien to sport to feel the emotions that I went through as a 10-year-old kid that made me the obsessive I am today.

KSI vs. Logan Paul is a massive fight. Not in terms of what it does for the landscape of world boxing, neither guy is going to be world champion. But kids everywhere are talking about boxing. Watching videos of Pernell Whittaker, Vasyl Lomachenko, Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard. Boxing is coming in to the mainstream even more.

Kids are going to be watching this fight. The first fights numbers were astronomical, it did around 1.1 million buys. For a White Collar fight. The undercard was three rounders of other YouTubers. The fight has since been uploaded to YouTube and has 18,000,000 views. For context Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko has also been uploaded in full to the site: 12,000,000 views.

Hearn promoting this show is no surprise. He is a businessman at the end of the day and this is a slam dunk in terms of making money for Matchroom Boxing, gaining exposure for Matchroom in the US, and most importantly, keeping the bosses at DAZN sweet.

But, he’s putting Devin Haney and Billy Joe Saudners on the undercard of the event. And this is where most of the criticism is coming from. What is Saunders doing on the undercard of this fight? He’s a world champion. Haney is the best prospect in world boxing, what a joke, f***cking Hearn who does he think he is — You say dressed in your Transformer pyjama’s.

Slow dowwwwwn.

Look at the bigger picture here. Saunders is actually fighting, which everyone agrees is a must. Inactivity is the killer of all great fighters, and him getting out on a card is a good thing. BJS is also a showman. Just remember him looking into the crowd vs. Lemiuex, first time watchers of boxing will love what he is able to do in the ring. Haney is certified stud, who will put on a clinic and probably put his opponent away in dramatic style as he does so often. They’re also gonna be fighting at a sold out Staples Centre and making a boat load of cash — don’t hate the player.

Now picture yourself as a ten-year-old kid watching these guys. Buying the PPV for KSI vs. Logan Paul of course, but then you’re showed what the sport has to offer. Saunders. Haney. An array of other young talent. And suddenly boxing has a whole new audience of fans, an entirely new group of kids who are going to go online and watch the geniuses of the sport from the past, maybe go to a local or a bigger show, maybe even take up the sport.

People watching boxing at whatever level is good for the sport, and I fail to see how anyone can be critical of the event.