Who Will Be Made Into a Meme at the TikTok vs. YouTube Social Gloves Fight?
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Nowadays, the influencer boxing revolution is at the point where we have a buzzy, Instagram-friendly fight just about every week. Last week? It was a batshit exhibition between Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather. This Saturday? We'll see “Social Gloves: Battle of the Platforms,” which will be the first fight to pit influencers exclusively against each other. And these guys are taking it seriously.
"I want people to respect me more in a sense of like: I'm not just a dancer," Michael Le—a.k.a. TikTok's 11th-most-followed user—told us in our deep dive into the movement.
Le will fight YouTube's infamous, once-banned-from-Fortnite gamer FaZe Jarvis in the event, which will go down on June 12 at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, coincidentally the same venue Mayweather and Paul just brawled at. The event will be similar to the Jake Paul-Ben Askren Triller Fight Club extravaganza, in that artists such as DJ Khaled, Lil Baby, and Migos will perform between the fights. As for those fights? The headlining duel will see YouTube's Austin McBroom take on TikTok's Bryce Hall, in a continuation of their pre-fight press conference brawl.
"I predicted a first-round knockout," McBroom told us. "My coach thinks he's going to go the second round because he wants me to take my time, be relaxed the first round, feel him out. But I just think he's nowhere near my level and I'm going to catch him slipping in the first."
It's hard to tell what, exactly, those who buy the pay-per-view will get themselves into. Obviously, this is a brutal-as-hell sport that takes years and years and years to master. So even though these guys have been training for months, we probably won't see the pinnacle of the sport this Saturday. But the whole thing should be more interesting from, I don't know, an existential perspective—i.e. what it means for our society if influencers with legions of fans are beating the snot out of each other. Big social media names like Tayler Holder, DDG, AnEsonGib, and Deji will also compete this weekend. At least one of them should look good enough to keep boxing and make a Paul-brother-esque run at this thing.
If all of... this has you curious, you can purchase the PPV and some NFTs, of course, here. For those in Miami who have a hankering to watch some influencers beat up on each other, you can grab an IRL seat, too. Hell, even today's weigh-in (noon ET!) will probably see some jawing. Beef will be settled, friends.
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