KSI fight joins Anthony Joshua and Canelo as one of DAZN’s most viewed events ever
KSI made a huge statement with his return to the boxing ring on August 27, beating both Swarmz and Luis Pined, and seeing the bout jump into DAZN’s top five most-watched events in history.
With a jam-packed sold-out O2 Arena,KSIfinally returned to the ring after almost 3 years since his last fight against former rival Logan Paul.
Originally set to face Alex Wassabi, who pulled out of the fight due to a concussion injury, the British YouTube star instead touched gloveswith not only one, but two opponents on the same night.
Kicking off the card, KSI stepped in the ring with London-born rapper Swarmz for the first fight of the night. ‘The Nightmare’ made quick work of Swarmz, who had no real prior boxing experience, resulting in a KO for the YouTuber in the second round.
Later the same night, KSI then went back at it again – this time touching gloves with professional boxer Luis Alcaraz Pineda. Expectations were high, as fans were hopeful this would be test KSI as a boxer. However, once again the YouTuber showed how easy it was for him.
After repeatedly landing heavy hitting body shots throughout the fight, KSI eventually won by KO in round three.
KSI vs Swarmz & Pineda top five most-watched on DAZN
Now, it has come to light that the event was one of the biggest that DAZN have ever done in boxing according to their EVP Joe Markowski.
As reported by theDailyMail, KSI’s card was among DAZN’s top-five most watched boxing events — falling just behind Dmitry Bivol’s vs Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
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“By any metric you want to use, that was one of the biggest events DAZN have ever done in boxing,” Markowski told Sportsmail.
“I’m personally very happy to be back in that space, because KSI vs Logan Paul II, November 2019 on DAZN, that sort of gave birth to celebrity boxing at that scale,” the DAZN EVP explained. “Covid happened and we stepped away, with good reason, but it’s now back, and it’s back in a big way.”
The August 27 event was watched more than Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano — one of the biggest nights ever for women’s boxing. It also outperformed the highly anticipated Derek Chisora vs Kubrat Pulev 2.
The British YouTube star is expected to be stepping back in the ring early next year, and Prime Hydration business partner and former rivalLogan Paul is expected to be one of the many names featuring on the fight card.
