A DAZN executive has demanded that Tommy Fury and KSI trade punches again.
Manchester’s Fury, the half-brother of heavyweight titlist Tyson Fury, defeated YouTube star KSI on points in their highly hyped—but otherwise dull—six-round grudge match last Saturday night in Manchester, England, on DAZN Pay-Per-View.
Scores were initially announced as 57-57, 57-56, and 57-56 in favor of Fury. (It turned out that the judge who had it a draw added up the score incorrectly; the score was corrected to 57-56 in favor of Fury, making Fury’s win a unanimous decision and not a majority.)
It was the second fight in a row in which Fury knocked off a YouTube fighter; Fury gave Jake Paul his first loss earlier this year, in February.
There was some surprise with the result as Fury was even docked a point for repeatedly punching behind the head.
But neither fighter mounted much of an offense in a fight that was widely lampooned by viewers.
After the fight KSI was apoplectic, crying robbery and calling for an “appeal.”
“That is a robbery, bro,” KSI said. “How many jabs did you land? Look at your face, look at your eyes. I’m the YouTuber, you are the boxer, so you have to win … He’s the man who is the one who is supposed to be the pro boxer. He hit me on the back of the head over and over. It is outrageous. I want to appeal. I need to see it again. I felt like I won that.”
A CEO for DAZN, Joe Markowski, agreed with KSI’s assessment and called for a rematch, while tagging Mams Taylor, KSI's manager and partner.
“Stand by this,” Markowski wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “@KSI was robbed. Appeal and rematch please @MamsTaylor.”
DAZN entered into a partnership with KSI’s promotional company, Misfits Boxing, last year, with the aim of producing more “crossover” boxing cards.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.
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