YouTube star Alex Wassabi didn't want to subject himself to an onslaught of abuse from rival KSI, and turned down the chance for a meeting in LA weeks out from their boxing fight.
The social media duo are set to put their years-long rivalry to bed at The O2 arena in London on August 27 in the main event of Misfits Boxing's debut card. They have been going back-and-forth since KSI's original fight with Joe Weller in 2018, and there is legitimate bad blood between the pair.
Wassabi is a quieter and less aggressive character than KSI, who has been goading him ever since the fight was agreed, declaring he will stop the American. And when the Brit came to LA, where Wassabi lives, he offered to go and meet up with his rival for a check-in ahead of their fight.
But Wassabi insists that he had no interest in allowing KSI to film an interaction where he would just shout abuse at his rival, and opted not to reply. Instead, he took on a double-training session to prepare himself for fight night. "I woke up that morning with a bunch of texts from people," Wassabi said during an appearance on The WADE Concept. "They're telling me 'yo, did you see?' And I'm asking 'see what'.
"So I saw that he was in LA and I'm like 'bro, I have two training sessions today', I've got recovery, this, that. I'm not going to drop everything on the day that you're here and come meet up with you just so you can call me a p**** for 30 minutes on your camera. Why would I do that? I'm serious about training, he can come to LA as much as he wants, I'm not going anywhere, I'm training. I'm in camp."
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KSI is believed to be particularly strong at the mental aspect of boxing, and constantly goads his opponents going into fights. But Wassabi has agreed to come to hostile territory in London, where he fought KSI's younger brother Deji back in March, and is not phased by any of the build-up.
"My opinion on mind games is that the people who use them need them," Wassabi explained. "I don't need them, I'm training. I don't need to try to get in your head or try to convince you that you're not training as hard as me. "I'm training as hard as possible, so I'm not worried about my opponent. He can do whatever he wants, he can stalk me, he can comment on all my pictures - he comments on all of my pictures, everything.
"It's crazy because I posted a TikTok of a cologne ad that I did, a sponsored thing, and he posted 'the only thing you're going to be smelling is blood on fight night,' or something like that. Every time he comments it makes me laugh."
