Social media influencer Logan Paul has slammed rival KSI for past claims of sexual harassment and for misogynistic comments made about Paul’s girlfriend, American actress Chloe Bennet and accused his brother of inciting violence at a London press conference ahead of their August 25 boxing match.
At the July 18 press conference at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London, Paul stormed out following a number of sexually-charged comments KSI – 25-year old Olajide William Olatunji – made about Bennet.
The incident followed an earlier KSI video in which he made similar remarks.
“Before the London press conference, in what was a mature attempt to handle this professionally, I had my team send your team a message that I know for a fact was personally received by you,” Paul said in a July 28 video directed to his fans and to KSI.
The message, which Paul reads verbatim in the video, said that KSI’s comments about Bennet “resemble an 18-year old KSI who sexually harassed women at a gaming convention and lost his Microsoft deal”, referring to a late 2012 incident in which he was accused of harassing attendees of a Eurogamer event, eventually prompting Microsoft to sever ties with him.
“[That] is a situation we’ve decided to stay away from and contractually agreed not to mention,” Pau’s message said. “If he wants to keep hitting below the belt that’s fine but I think the repercussions will hurt all parties involved.”
The nearly 20-minute long video uploaded by Logan Paul also includes a number of video clips depicting what Paul described as “disgusting sexual harassment issues”.
“You talk about my girl like she’s a piece of meat. But, you know women have a choice, right? Sometimes they don’t like those comments,” Paul said. “I feel like you should have learned that from what happened six years ago.”
Paul also addressed previous claims of misogyny made about his own music video “No Handlebars”, which received 42 million views.
“This type of content no longer accurately represents my brand or the person I am becoming,” he said, while deleting the video from YouTube.
KSI response
Responding to a request for comment from Arabian Business, Liam Chivers, the director of OP Talent Limited, which represents KSI, said that there “is no contractual agreement between the fighters, to not say certain things about each other.”
“Logan will have been keen for not too much raised about his recent past, but KSI addressed the mentioned issues from his past many years ago and moved on from that long ago,” he said.
“His partners and supporters are well aware of that and the true character and morals he abides by, so it’s disappointing that Logan is bringing up a very old indiscretion.”
Chivers added that he understands why Paul would want to protect his girlfriend from the hype surrounding the event and the “trash talk” between the two influencers.
“KSI only ever meant to poke fun at him and in no way condones or wants to be associated with the topic raised,” he added.
An accusation of inciting violence
In the same July 28 video, Paul also accused KSI’s young brother Deji of inciting violence at the press conference through a now-deleted video in which he implored his followers to “go out and fight them in London” and threatening to “shank” Paul with a knife.
Deji is slated to fight Jake Paul, Logan’s younger brother, in the undercard fight of the August 25 event.
Paul’s video shows his father, Greg Paul, being punched in the back of a head outside the Bethnal Green press conference.
In a YouTube response, Deji claims that Greg Paul “started” the incident and is now “trying to look to blame someone.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. So it’s still wrong that he got assaulted, but it is also wrong that he is attacking fans,” Deji said. ‘”I have thousands of witnesses.”
Dubai visits
KSI visited Dubai at the end of June and his video “KSI in Dubai” attracted more than 1.5 million views.
Logan Paul produced a series of Vlogs from his own Dubai trip last November, with three of them attracting over 7 million views each.
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