Social media star Alex Wassabi has said that he will have the mental edge over rival Deji Olatunji when the pair fight in London later this year.
Wassabi, whose real name is Alex Burriss, will take on Olatunji in the main event of a 10-fight YouTube Boxing card at the SSE Arena Wembley on March 5 after years of back-and-forth.
Neither man has won a fight as yet, with Wassabi making his debut and Olatunji looking to find his first win in three after defeats to Jake Paul and Vinnie Hacker.
And the American believes that he will be able to take advantage of a number of what he perceives as mental weaknesses in his British opponent, telling Olatunji that what he needs is a sports psychologist.
Olatunji looks to be in the shape of his life just weeks out from the fight, but Wassabi has seen his new training footage as evidence that he won't be mentally prepared for the bout.
"Honestly, everything he puts out makes me less and less nervous," Wassabi told Mirror Fighting in an exclusive chat.
"Everybody has nerves before a fight, even Mike Tyson said he cried before fights towards the end of his career.
"I was starting to feel those nerves once the announcement was made like 'oh, it's happening, it's real now,' and then every single time he puts something out I'm like 'why would he put that out?'
"Especially his last video, he quit over and over and over!
"I'm assuming that he wants to show that he can push through adversity and not going to give up, but every ten seconds in that video he gave up.
"I'm like 'we're less than two months from the fight, why are you gassing out?'
"My advice to him would be to get a sport psychologist, I think he needs to work more on the mind."
Olatunji looked impressive in his debut outing against Paul, taking the athletic Ohio native into the fifth round and bloodying him early in the contest.
But after being tipped as the early favourite against the 18-year-old Hacker last summer, he showed up 9lb over the weight he was for his last bout, and was stopped within three rounds.
Who do you think wins; Deji or Alex Wassabi? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
And Wassabi believes that the barriers to his success in boxing are more to do with the mind than his body, which has clearly improved over the past eight months.
"He's pushing his body but his mind is not where it needs to be," Wassabi continued.
"Especially in his last fight he took a knee without getting hit after he'd had a whole minute of resting.
"Then he gets up, they give him the count and he starts swinging and going hard - I'm like 'if you had that energy, then why would you take the knee?'
"That's his mindset, it's all mental with him and it's hard to talk about because I want this to be a good fight.
"I would rather win a decision than win by first round knockout because I want it to be an epic battle - this is my first fight!"
Tickets are on sale now at showstarboxing.com and via AXS for Showstar Boxing 2022, which will also feature Faze Temperr, King Kenny, Vitaly, Kristen Hanby, Armz Korleone and musician Minikon.
