Jake Paul slams door shut on KSI boxing fight after performing stunning U-turn

YouTuber-turned-boxer has cast doubt on whether a fight with long-time rival will happen.

A potential dust-up between the two social media stars would go down as the biggest clash in influencer history. Despite years of trading barbs, a fight has yet to materialise. The main hurdle appears to be agreeing on a weight class for the grudge match.

Most Valuable Promotions CEO Nakisa Bidarian recently revealed that they had laid out terms to Wasserman - the promoters behind Misfits Boxing - . "Not engaging in a back and forth. We proposed our terms to Wasserman on April 4th and the offer that followed was those exact terms," Bidarian stated on social media.

"Jake Paul wants to fight KSI. He does not need to fight KSI. Jake has campaigned at 200+ since December of 2023 and plans to continue at that weight with the intention to contest for a championship by the end of 2026." Speaking on the on Monday evening, Paul commented on his manager's open discussions with Misfits' Mams Taylor about arranging a showdown with KSI.

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"They only want eight rounds...they just keep adding new stuff [to the negotiations] all the time, and I'm focused on much bigger things," Paul said of a potential clash with KSI. "I'm all KSI has, he's literally nothing without the Paul brothers. Logan brought him Prime, and Prime has kept him relevant, and him being able to fight me is the only thing he has left. At the end of the day, I'm doing much bigger things and don't need to sit here and be negotiating things on . If they're going to make the fight happen, they're going to do it.

"I don't [think it's going to happen]...I've been saying this for five, six years, and this is a longer negotiation than vs. Manny Pacquiao...I'm clearly the one who is an active fighter, I'm fighting everybody, so who's the problem here? They aren't a serious boxing brand, Misfits has gone to s***. Their brand is a joke...and there's clearly one side that knows what they're doing and another side that's just joking around and it's a circus."

The likelihood of a face-off between the two seems even more unlikely now. Recent reports suggest that KSI is due to have surgery for a persistent hand injury. The social media sensation had to when the injury worsened during training.

Last week, former fighter Darren Till challenged KSI to a bout following his victory over Darren Stewart. The British YouTuber appeared hesitant about the fight, explaining his reluctance by saying: "For me, I have said that I need to fix my hand," when questioned about accepting Till's challenge.

He added: "I wanted to do hyrox (an indoor fitness competition) and I got one hour, 10 minutes and 43 seconds. It's pretty good for the first time. But for me, now that I have got that done, it is time for surgery. Get that fixed, and then just rehab it so I can eventually be able to punch again. I've heard from different people that it is six weeks or six months [to recover from]. I want it to be a lot sooner rather than later, but it just depends on how severe the damage is."