KSI's cornerman Norbert Novenyi Jr believes that one of Austin McBroom or Andrew Tate could be the right opponent for the YouTuber's next boxing match.
The Watford native comfortably put away both rapper Swarmz and Mexican journeyman Luis Pineda in front of a packed crowd at The O2 arena in London on Saturday night before putting the social media world on notice. Among his callouts were Slim Albaher, who had just won by KO in the co-main event, Tommy Fury and both McBroom and Tate.
Of all the names mentioned, the current trends would put former kick-boxing world champion Tate as the most relevant opponent for KSI. A number of his London Shootfighters teammates are likely to remember the American-born kick-boxer from his days on the UK MMA circuit, where he is believed to have fought more than the twice that his Tapology account claims.
And Novenyi, who would likely be a ranked Bellator middleweight if it weren't for injuries and inactivity, believes Tate is the right man. Asked by Mirror Fighting who he feels KSI should fight next, the 22-year-old responded: "Whoever he wants to fight.
"That Austin guy he called out, Andrew Tate, look I'll be honest and say I don't really know the YouTubers too well, I don't watch it too much. Andrew Tate would be a fun fight, for crazy reasons he broke every rule [on social media].
"I personally don't know him, but I have a lot of friends who know him. Many of them had issues with him in the past, and a lot of fighters I know were friends with him as well so the only thing I can say about the guy is he gets attention from what I've heard and he likes to sell, from what I've heard."
Novenyi rated KSI's performance a 10/10 for his two wins, despite struggling to put away Pineda over three rounds and allowing Swarmz to make it to the second after just a few days of training. Although they will find issues to pore over at the gym this week, the fighter felt his pal did well, all things considered.
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"Don't get me wrong, his effort was a 10," Novenyi explained. "Everything he puts his mind to he succeeds at, just look at his music, YouTube, now this, everything he does is great. There's always things to improve on, even if it's a perfect performance there will always be things to improve on.
"At the end of the day, he did great. He hadn't fought in a long time and he fought two times in a row. One of them was a legit boxer, Pineda had a lot of amateur fights, what else can you ask for from that guy? He's a gangster at this!"
Novenyi will have a keen eye on a number of upcoming middleweight match-ups as he hopes to return to the Bellator cage within the next year. He had a star-making win over Will Fleury in front of a packed 3Arena at Bellator Dublin in 2019, before being forced out for a year by coronavirus restrictions. Then last year he was due to face Charlie Ward but picked up a severe injury.
The youngster is now back fully sparring at London Shootfighters, which is home to some of the UK's top MMA fighters including Michael 'Venom' Page and Mike Shipman. He is eyeing up an October comeback, which is the same month that fellow British and Irish scene stars Fabian Edwards and Charlie Ward clash in Milan.
