Okay kid! If you want to be a Youtuber, you gotta be tough!
You gotta learn how to bob and weave around the bad comments!
You gotta a develop a hook to bring in the subs,
and you gotta keep on fighting till they ring that notification bell!
It ain't gonna be easy kid, but if you work with me, I'll turn you into a lean, mean fightin' machine!
Now get in there and shill for your merch!
[Game Theory Intro]
Hello Internet! Welcome to GAME THEORY!
The show that, today, is exploring the influences behind influencer boxing.
*ding, ding, ding*
Loyal theorists, maybe it's all the Wendy's commercials I've been seeing lately,
but honestly, I've developed a craving for some beef
And not necessarily the HOT, FRESH, NEVER FROZEN beef
that's gettin' pedaled by the baconator,
but celebrity beef
Not to toot my own horn too much,
but I've been making Youtube videos
and gradually getting subscribers for a long time now
and yet I have never once had a single news worthy
feud with another YouTuber.
Markiplier has never blatantly stolen one of my videos,
Rosanna Pansino has never talked smack about my mama,
as far as I know. BUT I GOT MY EYE ON YOU RO.
Heck - even as much as I rip Austin
about his yelling and his bizarre twitter habits, our fights have never gone
beyond which Doki Doki Literature Club character is the best.
He argues Yuri, but we all know there's only one answer.
j u s t m o n i k a
In short I can't help but feel like I'm missing out. If good, clean, wholesome
content, like working to raise awareness for the Humanitarian Efforts for the Gates Foundation
for three years, or raising money for hurricane
victims isn't cutting it, then forget it!
I wanna write a diss track. I wanna be forced to make a fully monetize-able
apology video for my conduct.
I wanna step into an f-ing boxing ring and get beaten senseless.
*SMACK*
Ahh, aww, phoooh, maybe not that last one.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, boxing.
A little over a week ago, one of YouTube's biggest gamers - FIFA legend,
turned rapper, turned just general bad boy of YouTube, KSI.
Got into the ring and boxed with singer/vlogger Joe Weller
The livestream attracted millions of concurrent viewers
And nearly 25 million views in its first week
Making it unquestionably one of the most viewed amateur boxing matches in history
Up there with probably the Olympics if not bigger
Those sorts of numbers would put most professional matches to shame
Though, it's a bit hard to say since those were all pay for view bouts
Anyway you slice it, this thing was massive
And when you actually stop and watch the video, completely legit
KSI and Joe Weller weren't just two guys who decided one afternoon to slap on some gloves and play Little Mac
They actually really put time and effort into their training
AND YET of course
because it was two youtubers, the news media wants to poopoo over the entire thing!
Say, for instance, The Telegraph who called it a [snooty accent]"Stain on the Noble Art of Boxing"
Well, hate to tell you News Media, but it wasn't
And it's time that I, MatPat, defend the work of my fellow YouTubers
by throwing my hat into the ring, not to fight though
HOLY HECK no my eyes tear up if I stub a toe!
Nope, today's episode is all about how KSI won so lopsidedly
What tactics were the guys using, what historical boxers
were they using as their proverbial strategy guides
And how KSI's next opponent, which
looks like it is shaping up to be Logan Paul because of course it
is. Though seeing Logan getting rocked in a ring would be
tremendously satisfying (we agree with you MatPat)
Still, it might be a match KSI should turn down
Oh, and to answer the enviable question to as why this is a game theory cause
KSI was a gamer
{KSI} You a FIFA gamer! You just.. you just a Youtuber You can't do it.
And because I did that really weird episode in Year 1 of Game Theory
where I analyzed Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!
and edited everything to a remixed version of Jock Jams!
Just...Please accept one of those 2 answers
and LET'S GET READY TO R U M B L E
As you watch the fight, the first thing that immediately stands out is
both fighter's guards.
As soon as the first round starts, Joe makes a
bee-line for KSI,
holding a guard known as a
peek-a-boo guard.
With his hands at either side of his face.
This is a style that was probably most famously used by
Mike Tyson, especially in his earlier bouts in the 1980's.
However, this is also where Joe makes his first crucial mistakes of the match.
A mistake that KSI actually identifies
and takes advantage of.
{KSI} Joe didn't move his head enough, bro.
{KSI} I'm gonna - I'm going to just jab through that,
{KSI} I'm going to smash through that constantly.
The difference between Mike Tyson's peek-a-boo block
and Joe Weller's peek-a-boo block
is movement, and speed.
Look at how in his matches, Mike Tyson is constantly bobbing and weaving,
ducking under the punches.
His head is protected behind his hands,
sure,
but he's not just using it to absorb the blows.
He's also ensuring that his head is a moving target,
making it hard for any opponent to actually land a punch.
Joe's head, meanwhile, is just a target bobbing there
waiting to be smacked.
Over and over again.
Repeatedly, until the match is over.
Now, let's look at KSI,
who's guard is...
well, a bit inconsistent.
But, points to him for identifying it himself
in his reaction video.
{KSI} My right hand (laughs)
{KSI} should not be there.
{KSI} It was terrible, like my hand should be in the air.
And while that may seem like it would be an off-stance (I think that's what he said) for a boxer,
it's actually not.
The movement KSI is describing here
is called the Philly Shell,
which is a guarding position with the lead arm horizontally across the torso,
and the back hand by the chin.
In fact, it's a style used most famously by
Floyd Mayweather Jr,
widely considered to be the best defensive boxer in HISTORY.
who retired, undefeated,
with an all time record of 50 wins and 0 losses (damn)
So even though it looks like the boxer is giving himself a big ol' hug
or cowering in fear, being like
"oh, why are you hitting me, why are you hitting me ;-;"
- It's like me in the hallway corner during middle school -
what's really happening with the Philly Shell is that
both the head and body are being protected at the same time.
One arm across the body,
and one arm close to the head.
The boxer will also "blade off",
at a more extreme angle,
which means that their opponent can't see their chest straight on,
and the head is now off the centre line,
making it harder to get a solid direct hit on either of those major targets.
So overall, it's a smart blocking strategy on KSI's part.
And, it's also clear from his post-fight reaction
that KSI's block wasn't the only thing inspired by Floyd Mayweather.
{KSI} This is what, uh, Mayweather did
against, uh, McGregor.
I mean, making kissy faces at my opponent isn't really how I would try to strike fear into their hearts,
but HECK, what can I say, I'm just a lover.
Not a fighter.
Or maybe I just have a really punchable face.
But you're not gonna win a fight by blocks alone.
You gotta throw yourself a few punches.
So let's look at KSI's strategy first.
Now, if Joe Weller had been paying close enough attention,
he actually would have gotten a hint as to
KSI's fight strategy during the way-in prior to the match.
Now to be uninitiated, boxing and fighting might sound interchangeable but KSI
is really making a comment here on the different kinds of
fight strategies that he anticipates
that he and Joe
will be using. Well there are plenty of
sub-categories, boxers are usually placed into
one of three classifications, swarmers, out-boxers
and brawlers. A swarmer is usually a fighter
who attempts to overwhelm his opponent with a high volume of punches
from close range. Neither of these guys in this fight
count as a swarmer. But KSI's statement about
boxing v.s. fighting during the way in
indicates that he sees himself as an out-boxer
and Joe as a brawler. Out-boxers tend to be
faster than their opponents and try to score points by landing
a lot of punches from a distance and evading punches of their opponent.
As a result, the most effective out-boxers
usually have a longer reach
then their opponents and that's
exactly what we see play out in the KSI Weller fight.
Well, I can't find any official measurements for each fighters wing span.
KSI is listed at 5'11" to Joe's 5'9".
Which means that KSI is going to have
longer arms, allowing him to throw more of the long jabs
that we see throughout the fight.
{KSI} I don't want him here, I want him here, I want him always here
{KSI} so I can just jab, jab, jab and *ding* with...
with my range.
As long as KSI moves his feet properly
he can put himself in a position where he can hit Joe
and Joe can't hit back from the same distance.
The most famous outboxer of all time was Muhammad Ali
But KSI's performance actually reminds me more of a famous
fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran in
the early 1980s. Late in that fight Sugar Ray Leonard
does the unthinkable. He stops putting his hands up,
because he is so confident that Duran can't get to him -
he goes so far as to taunt Duran in the ring!
Dancing around, putting his face forward, begging to be punched,
and delivering what is undoubtedly the
biggest troll punch I've ever seen in
a professional boxing match. "Hey look over here's the windup!"
"BOOM with the other hand"
It is literally the Don Flamenco strategy from Punch-Out!
And, similar to the KSI Weller fight,
Duran in that match is never knocked to the ground.
Instead, he's just too exhausted and out matched
late in the fight, that he throws in the towel.
So does this mean that Joe Weller had no chance in this match?
Not at all. Joe and Mike are around the same height at 5'9"
but Iron Mike managed to defeat Heavyweight Boxing champions
that were 6'2" and taller!
So, what was the difference here?
Well, outside of just raw punch power,
Joe never tried to get inside of KSI's range.
He just sat there and took it.
And again, to KSI's credit, this is something he totally recognised and exploited.
{KSI} So what Joe's doing here, was sick.
{KSI} He's putting the pressure on, and he's throwing.
{KSI} That's what he should have done at the beginning.
{KSI} Whenever he gets close, I just, I just clinch,
{KSI} and then boom. And then I'm out. And then I'm out.
In fact, Joe's lack of movement makes me wonder if his plan was to originally have KSI punch himself out,
eventually getting too tired to defend himself.
That may sound like a stupid strategy,
but it's not.
Actually, Muhammad Ali called it the "rope-a-dope",
when he used it against George Foreman in 1974.
And it was mimicked in Rocky III
when Rocky fights Mr.T's character, Clubber Lang.
The problem with the rope-a-dope strategy, though,
is that George Foreman and Clubber Lang were both brawlers.
But in out-boxer, like Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali,
or in this case, KSI,
is unlikely to get so tired that they become susceptible to quick counter punch knockouts.
It's also something KSI, once again,
saw coming.
{KSI} Remember, you were like, I was gonna be 3 2's,
{KSI} 3 rounds of 2 minutes. And then, you wanted it to be 6 3's,
{KSI} because you were like "Oh, you're not fit enough."
{KSI} As soon as you said that, I knew "Ok. That's one of your game plans,
{KSI} it was to try and tire me out."
Joe wasn't able to adjust, and that, ladies and gentlemen, was the fight.
So not only was this NOT a stain on the "nOBle ArT oF BoxInG",
or just a shameless publicity stunt from 2 online celebrities,
but instead,
it was a well put together, amateur boxing match,
with KSI proving himself to be a smart and savvy fighter.
But that, of course,
opens the door to more matches in the future.
And you know that where there's an opportunity to make a spectacle of yourself,
you can bet that the brothers Paul
will soon be there.
And low and behold within HOURS of the bell
bringing KSI's fight to the close,
the Paul's were already tripping over themselves to be his next opponent.
But, for as much as I'd love to see a savvy fighter like JJ knock a tooth out of those smarmy grins,
there's actually a danger here if he accepts the match.
Whereas KSI had the reach advantage on Joe Weller,
both of the Paul brothers stand at around 6'2",
and probably have a pretty good understanding of angles and footwork from their history of wrestling.
Oh yeah, you didn't know that Logan and Jake were actually both wrestlers?
And as much as I hate to admit it,
but watching their matches...they're pretty good.
Anyway, if KSI tries to use his outboxing style against either of these guys,
they'll be the ones who are able to strike from farther away
That means, based on the size differences
that KSI is now basically in Joe Weller's position
In other words, if KSI wants to have a hope of winning
and lord knows, if he accepts this match the internet needs him to win
he has to be willing to change his style.
The outboxing method of Mayweather just won't work in this sort of match
If I were training KSI, I would tell him to be more of a swarmer in this fight
get in close, get low, and throw more hooks and uppercuts from close range.
A good example of this technique would be Joe Frazier
who fought Muhamed Ali in the famous fight of the century
Announcer: "Muhamed Ali is not keeping Joe Frazer away from him!"
Notice here how Frazer stays low, ducking under Ali's punches and throwing short quick hits.
The best training at this point for KSI would be
to beef up the strength of his punches and improve his stamina.
He's gonna have to take a lot of hits to win this one
But thankfully, it looks like KSI, once again showing himself to be a smart fighter,
is already starting to take these sorts of strategies to heart
KSI: "If I was gonna fight Logan or Jake, I know they're both taller than me"
KSI: "I'm going to box them like Mike Tyson"
And you know what? He's totally right.
Mike Tyson was sometimes a swarmer
So this strategy change makes perfect sense for him to stand a chance in the ring.
However, if KSI does'nt have the power to knock LoganPaul out quickly,
He's gonna be toast. Unless, of course, when he says fight like Mike Tyson
He means he's gonna bite off Logan Paul's ear.
Which, come to think of it, that would be a fight I would TOTALLY be excited to see!
BUT HEY! THAT'S JUST A THEORY!
A GAME THEORY!
If boxing counts as a game
Otherwise, it a GAMER THEORY!
And if you don't accept that one, its a SPORTS THEORY!
WHO KNOWS
Anyway, thanks for watching
Anyway, this is your final reminder that these are your last few days to order your game theorist hoodie.
Once these things are gone, they are gone for good
Link is in the description, you have until Tuesday!
And I'll see you all, next week
Or actually, next Tuesday on film theory
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