The sport of boxing has recently become a broadcasted activity for people beyond professional fighters, including social media influencers. This year, the internet’s biggest stars, such as Jake and Logan Paul, Bryce Hall and Austin McBroom, have gone head-to-head in live, pay-per-view boxing matches. While this growing trend has helped boxing increase in popularity, it has also brought into question the legitimacy of the sport. Many influencers use these matches as an easy source of money and fame, without respect for boxing as a sport. Draws have become a recurring outcome so that the fighters can have a rematch for even more money. 

Fritz Russell (10) takes private boxing lessons and occasionally spars with a friend. 

“I think it’s kind of sad because they are getting a lot of money for just one boxing match. There are people who are way better than them who have been training for years, and they don’t get even a quarter of the money just because they don’t have that many followers or likes on social media,” Russell said. 

This trend of celebrities competing in boxing matches started when Jake and Logan Paul challenged YouTubers KSI and Deji to a match. Both sets of brothers have highly popular YouTube channels with the Paul brothers based in the United States, and KSI and Deji based in the United Kingdom. These matches resulted in a win for Jake Paul in the Jake vs. Deji match and a draw between Logan Paul and KSI.  

John Rhoden (9) watched the KSI vs. Logan Paul match live.

“I thought it was a good fight but I felt like it was dragged out for no reason and was mainly for money,” Rhoden said.

More influencer matches have been held since the original fight, such as the TikTok versus YouTube matches. These fights included numerous popular YouTube creators, such as Tanner Fox and Danny Duncan, facing off against popular TikTok creators, such as Vinnie Hacker and Michael Le. This event resulted in a win for the YouTube creators by a score of 6-1. 

Influencers are not only boxing each other but also professional boxers. For example, a fight was broadcasted in April between Jake Paul and professional MMA fighter Ben Askren resulting in a win for Paul in a first-round knockout. Jake isn’t the only Paul brother fighting professional boxers, as months after, a highly publicized match was held between Logan Paul and infamous boxer Floyd Mayweather. 

Ruben Falcon (10) watched the Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather and was not very impressed. 

“I thought it was not that exciting because they barely even hit each other,” Falcon said.