Celebrity boxing is a satire, but the punch line is predictable | Boxing

T.His fighters circle each other, uncertainly, a little slyly, getting some fresh air, loosening their limbs, feeling the spring and clatter of the canvas under their boots. It takes about 15 seconds for them to get tired of it and start swinging at each other.

KSI throws a straight right that looks eerily like the guy who fell on the bus. FaZe Temperrr, slightly unbalanced, responds with a check hook reminiscent of a man trying to lift a cat with one arm. . What’s actually happening is that KSI violently swings his arm towards his Temperrr, and Temperrr also begins to violently swing his arm. Christmas tree on Sidcup pavement.

After a while, KSI starts to find range, improving his rush timing a bit, avoiding Temperrr’s long levers, and using his superior speed with Lightning Bursts. With just under a minute left on him in the first round, he makes his move, breaks Temperrr’s completely theoretical defense, and leaves him red in the face. As Temperrr’s legs bend under him, the nearly 12,000 fans in his Wembley arena roar and stand up as if this were the real deal.

And you know, maybe yes. Perhaps the most notable aspect of influencer boxing (the relatively recent phenomenon of social media stars slapping each other for a few minutes to a frankly staggering number of viewers) is the “appropriate sport”. It’s about how eager you are to wrap yourself up in toys. There are real commentators talking about real boxing. After his win, KSI was handed the belt with a completely fictional title. On social media, fans break down the fight and discuss KSI’s potential next opponents. Joe Fournier seems to be an option. Salt Papi calls him. Jake Paul is clearly someone everyone wants, but no one expects that to happen for a while.

If you’re unfamiliar with this intriguing parallel universe character, chances are you started getting dizzy long before this point. And perhaps the natural reaction here is to shake your head a little, put aside the quiet elegies and gruff things about young people these days, and simply let it out. has been the subject of fierce debate, a vision of an apocalyptic future in which pearl-clasping, fist-shaking, boxing has been consumed entirely by frivolous celebrity sideshow. Distortion, players like KSI and Paul are already earning more games in their lives than world champions like Josh Taylor, for example, will earn in their lifetime.

The really interesting part of this to me is why hundreds of thousands of people invest in products that aren’t even very good by objective sports standards. According to some reports, and as with many others in boxing, these will probably need to be accompanied by adequate saline.A KSI-Paul showdown could break all known records. high.

The first thing to point out is that by all accounts, celebrity boxing viewers are very different from traditional boxing viewers. , pays little attention to Ring’s pedigree or the writings of George Plimpton. You won’t see them at York Hall on Friday night. When his YouTube boxing bubble starts to burst (as nearly all internet his trends eventually do), the chances of the influencer taking his fans are high.

The second point is that, given the traits that have been woven into the fabric of boxing itself for decades, there is no accusation of vulgarity and greed, poor quality fights and content for content. Big fights are rare, no one really means what they say, self-interest reigns, and product quality doesn’t live up to the hype it advertises. Besides, PR stunts and crossover experiments really aren’t new. Remember Muhammad Ali’s ill-fated foray into wrestling in the 1970s?

It is in this context that the grotesque and glamorous rise of influencers needs to be seen. In a way, influencer boxing is a kind of sport he cosplays. It’s almost a satire on boxing itself, steeped in arches and knowledge and cynicism, effectively exaggerating existing traits. They look like boxers. They walk and act like boxers. They trash talk and call out to each other like boxers. The product itself looks like boxing on the surface. 1 a.m. He fights like a drunk at The Grapes By the time the punchline goes down, you’re already joking.

And in any case, this is a very good joke. It has proven to be more popular than the real thing because it created a highly effective and perfect boxing imitation. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that many YouTube boxers began their careers by filming pranks and posting them online. Boxing’s job is to discover why parody is ripe.