Boxing's YouTube experiment: What next for KSI and Logan Paul in 2020?

Whether you love or loathe it, everybody has an opinion on the event which recently took place at the Staples Center in LA.
Much to the amusement and perhaps anger by many pro fighters, the rematch between two YouTube presenters did something not many fights can do these days in the United States and UK alike, and that's pulling in huge numbers.
Eddie Hearn, who was vocal in criticising the first encounter last year in Manchester, ironically promoted the second bout for ambitious streaming service DAZN. It also landed on Sky Sports PPV at a much cheaper price than the normal £20 charge or £24.95 for Ruiz-Joshua 2.

More of what's to come?

It produced the biggest numbers on both platforms according to the Matchroom mogul, which suggests there is more to come ahead of 2020. If being honest, the fight itself was at most, glorified white collar boxing - neither of them had the right to be professional or even claim to be. The undercard on the other hand, included two world champions in action with Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney making their first defences of the WBO and WBC titles, respectively. Both recorded victories.
Justin Bieber - the biggest popstar on Earth - was at ringside to watch the spectacle which drew in over a million fans across both sides of the Atlantic. "That fight is everything great about boxing," Hearn said. "It was a really good fight. KSI is a little bit wild. "I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I was surprised it went the distance.

"KSI was gone. He's lucky Logan hit him in the back of the head. He wanted to win so bad though. The determination he showed. He came back from being completely finished to win the last round." When asked about staging another event similar, the promoter told Sky Sports: "I would do it again. If there's guys out there who can fight, who take it seriously, then, why not?

"It was the YouTube world that showed everybody. I had five or six calls from different fields, asking 'can I fight the winner?' We'll digest and review but I'm all up for growing this sport."

The last line of what Hearn said is possibly the most important. Growing the sport is vital as the UFC continues to outperform boxing in terms of viewing figures and quality of fights.Since Floyd Mayweather retired from the sport, PPV sales have been in decline while DAZN - a platform which attempts to kill off PPV - seem very tight-lipped on their current numbers.
Maybe Floyd was a one-off? The only thing we know is, a lot of money is being pumped into boxing and while the YouTubers aren't everyone's cup of tea, they have certainly generated the interest others have struggled to do in recent times. As we head into the next decade, the big question is, will we see a surge of YouTubers overtake the likes of Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Anthony Joshua in creating more revenue and interest?
It remains to be seen but a message to those who hate it, suck it up as there's plenty more to come.