KSI is done fighting. At least, that’s what he told a Misfits Boxing crowd on Saturday, October 10, when he announced his retirement from boxing in the middle of the Joey Essex Misfits card, according to The Sun.
How it landed depends on who you ask. The Sun’s headline said fans were slamming what they called a ‘cringe WWE-style speech’, which tells you the delivery got more attention than the news itself. The announcement came mid-event and from inside the ring, and the reaction online split quickly between people treating it as the end of an era and people treating it as a pro wrestling promo with worse lighting.
The timing is the strange part. On the same broadcast, KSI also announced that Michael ‘Venom’ Page has signed with Misfits, as Championship Rounds posted on X with footage from Misfits Boxing. So the man who just retired spent part of his big night doing promoter duties and rolling out one of the most recognizable strikers in combat sports as the promotion’s new signing. That doesn’t look like a guy leaving the building. It looks like a guy changing desks.
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The sources available don’t include KSI’s record or details of his most recent fights, so I won’t guess at them here. What they do show is how much he’s still part of the conversation in the crossover fight business. Two days before the Misfits card, Jake Paul posted a list on X under the line “Before I rest…” naming the opponents he wants before he hangs it up. KSI was on it, along with Canelo Alvarez, Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor, Sean Strickland, Darren Till, Ryan Garcia, Chris Eubank, Edgar Berlanga, Tom Aspinall, Deontay Wilder and Nate Diaz. Paul tagged MVP’s Nakisa Bidarian and wrote “Make it happen.”
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Till, for one, didn’t take the call-out quietly. He quoted the list on X with “Stop talking shite I would flat line you inside of 5.” KSI’s answer, apparently, was to retire three days after his name showed up on it. If he meant it, that’s one name Paul can cross off without throwing a punch.
Quick take
I love a theatrical exit. I love press conference chaos and a big in-ring moment, and this one had both. But combat sports retirements have a shelf life about as long as a carton of milk, and this one came wrapped in a WWE-style speech on a night when the retiree was also playing ringmaster for his own promotion’s biggest signing. KSI might never lace up again. I just wouldn’t bet the house on it with Jake Paul’s name-the-price list still pinned to the internet. For now, the actual news coming out of Misfits is that MVP is officially on the roster, and the guy who announced it has just made himself the most expensive comeback in the influencer business.
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