How an Eastbourne YouTuber started a boxing trend involving Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul and KSI

Joe Weller, who has more than five million subscribers on YouTube, first started the trend by boxing Seaford-based internet star Theo Baker.

Mr Baker has more than 900,000 subscribers on YouTube and is known for his sporting content.

In the fight, which has gained almost seven million views on YouTube since 2017, Mr Weller won and declared himself the ‘champion of boxing on YouTube’.

Following the fight Mr Weller appealed for his next opponent and highlighted a comment on Instagram from YouTuber and rapper KSI saying he wanted to face the winner of the fight.

Ahead of the bout between KSI and Mr Weller the pair were involved in an altercation in which the two YouTube stars pushed each other on the stage at a press conference.

The pair went toe-to-toe at the Copperbox Arena on February 3, 2018 and KSI won by way of technical knockout in the third round.

The video of the fight currently has more than 20 million views.

After his victory KSI called on fellow internet celebrity Logan Paul who agreed to a fight.

The pair fought at the Manchester Arena on August 25, 2018 as their brothers, Jake Paul and ComedyShortsGamer, faced off on the same night.

The fight was deemed by many to be the biggest amateur boxing fight of all time with the Youtube account designated to the event amassing more than 119 million views as of June 2021.

The fight resulted in a majority draw with KSI retaining the ‘YouTube World Championship’ title.

A year later the pair fought again, this time in a professional fight at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, with KSI winning in a split decision victory.

Since the KSI vs Logan Paul fights, that pushed ‘celebrity boxing’ into the spotlight, Mr Paul has gone on to fight Floyd Mayweather who holds the record for the most boxing world titles held simultaneously.

Jake Paul has also gone on to win three professional fights against former basketball player Nate Robinson, UFC fighter Ben Askren and YouTuber AnEsenGib while also calling out MMA fighter Conor McGregor.