The Ranveer Show<\/a> that his fighting days are behind him. In the interview, the 32-year-old discussed why he fell out of love with boxing, why he\u2019s turning his focus back to content creation going forward, and why a big-money fight with Jake Paul never materialized despite KSI allegedly receiving an eight-figure offer.<\/p>\n\u201cI think everyone has a bad side, but it\u2019s whether you want to tap into that, and for me, I don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d KSI said. \u201cI felt like I had to when I was boxing. I felt like I had to be the nightmare and with that to sell a fight you have to do stuff to get people to want to watch. You have to find ways to bring that emotion out of people and I did some horrible things when I was doing the whole boxing thing. But that\u2019s the fight game and I didn\u2019t enjoy it. I didn\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even gain much from the material stuff. My fight with Tommy Fury, all the money I made, I gave it to my trainers. All of it. For me, I don\u2019t do stuff for this. I\u2019ve been offered $3o million to fight Jake Paul. These guys can\u2019t give me any amount of money to fight this guy. When it comes to boxing, I\u2019m done. I tried. My main goal when I got into the boxing ring again was to fight Jake Paul and build Misfits. Build Misfits, try to fight Jake Paul time and time and time again, it\u2019s just excuse after excuse after excuse. Instead of Tommy Fury, I was there ready to fight Jake Paul. I was ready, I was there, let\u2019s go, and instead he fought Nate Diaz. Then at that point, I had to fight Tommy Fury. I think I tried to build up again to try and fight Jake again, and then he was just getting heavier and heavier and heavier trying to move the goal posts when it comes to weight. Then it got to the point where it was like, what am I doing? I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n
KSI is a pivotal figure of the influencer boxing boom, having first stepped into the ring in 2018 when he defeated Joe Weller to set up a fight with fellow YouTube star Logan Paul. In August of that year, KSI and Paul met in an amateur boxing bout that recorded a reported 1.3 million buys (at a price of $10 USD). Paul\u2019s brother Jake, also a YouTuber and actor, later committed to becoming a professional boxer and the rest is history.<\/p>\n
For KSI, the seven-year journey reached its logical conclusion after the Fury loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say it started from the Tommy Fury fight, after I lost that fight,\u201d KSI said. \u201cI was definitely quite a bit lost and then over a few months, years, I was like, alright, let me try and get back into boxing, but my heart wasn\u2019t really in it and it didn\u2019t work out. Eventually, I just got to a point where I was getting ready to fight Dillon Danis. My hand was f*cked up. I felt like shit. My body was broken. I was like, \u2018Why am I doing this to myself?\u2019 Why am I putting myself through hell when there\u2019s something I purely enjoy, something I enjoy so much more, and that\u2019s making content.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the founders of Misfits Boxing, KSI remains committed to helping grow the influencer boxing promotion, but don\u2019t expect him to step back into that ring again anytime soon.<\/p>\n
KSI fought eight times, including his amateur bouts, and for now, he\u2019s had enough of the grind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say the training, how physically and mentally draining it is, it\u2019s just like nothing else,\u201d KSI said. \u201cI\u2019d say of everything I\u2019ve done in my life, that is the hardest thing. Think about it. You\u2019ve got a 12-week camp. You\u2019ve got a fight date. You\u2019re like, \u2018Cool, let me start. I feel good. I feel pumped. I feel ready.\u2019 First day, you train, you feel good. Like, \u2018Oh wow, that was great.\u2019 And then train again. So I\u2019m training twice a day, OK, I still feel good. Second day, train twice a day, \u2018Wow, I feel great.\u2019 This happens over and over again. End of the week I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh man, I feel really good. There\u2019s no problems, anything.\u2019 Sparring went well, maybe I was a little tired, stamina wasn\u2019t up to standard, but I\u2019m there.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext week, do it again. This time, you\u2019re getting up not so easily. Your back hurts. Your legs hurt a bit more and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018OK, this is a little bit harder than it was last week.\u2019 Sparring, not doing as well. The stamina, the fitness is really starting to get to you. Third week, you\u2019re waking up and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh man, OK. I\u2019ve got to do this again.\u2019 And then you look at the fight date and you go, \u2018I\u2019ve got several weeks of this and I\u2019m already feeling it.\u2019 By the seventh or eighth week, you\u2019re like, \u2018Why am I doing this? I hate this. This is horrible.\u2019 I\u2019m getting beat up. I don\u2019t even want to get up anymore. I fell ill, like, my body is starting to shut down because you\u2019re just feeling sick. But you just have to fight through it. Every day, the same thing over and over and over again. And then think of it, that\u2019s physically. Mentally, you\u2019re just there. Cooked.\u201d<\/p>\n
KSI will undoubtedly continue to be front and center when it comes to entertainment opportunities\u2014he made a memorable appearance at WrestleMania 39 alongside foe-turned-friend Logan Paul\u2014but as far as competitive contests go, he\u2019s getting off of that roller-coaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then when you get there it\u2019s like, \u2018Alright, cool, I\u2019m at the fight. Oh no, why am I nervous? Oh my God, there\u2019s so many people around,\u2019\u201d KSI said. There\u2019s so many people depending on me. I\u2019ve got people betting on me. I\u2019ve got people telling me that they\u2019re betting on me, being like, \u2018Bro, I\u2019m betting, like, 10K. I really need you to win this\u2019 and all of that pressure getting heavier and heavier and heavier and heavier and then you have to walk out. Even if your legs are jelly, you have to walk out, face your opponent, and then fight them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, you win, fantastic. Best feeling ever. Euphoric. You\u2019re over the moon. You lose, \u2018What a waste of my f*cking time. What a waste. I literally spent 12 weeks of my life killing myself to not get the result I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KSI won\u2019t be putting on the gloves again. The social media influencer hasn\u2019t boxed since a 2023 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,1347,85],"class_list":["post-406676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}