Stephen Colbert called Logan Paul 'getting punched in the head' by fellow YouTuber KSI a 'great' sports memory
- Stephen Colbert said Logan Paul "getting punched in the head" by KSI was a great sports memory.
- Colbert was referencing a 2019 match between Paul and KSI, whose real name is Olajide Olatunji.
Stephen Colbert said Logan Paul "getting punched in the head" in a boxing match was a great sports memory in a segment about the Staples Center's name change announcement.
During Wednesday night's episode of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," the comedian and talk show host referenced Paul's 2019 boxing match with Olajide Olatunji, or the YouTuber KSI, during a segment where he talked about how the Staples Center in Los Angeles is being renamed to Crypto.com Arena.
"The Staples Center had so many great sports memories," he said on the show, listing as examples Kobe Bryant's 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006 and the LA Kings winning the Stanley Cup tournament against the New Jersey Devils in June 2012.
"Logan Paul getting punched in the head," Colbert added, to loud applause from the audience.
The show then played a slow-motion clip of Olatunji punching Paul in the side of the head during the duo's November 9, 2019, boxing fight at the Staples Center.
The match, which went to Olatunji in a split decision, was a rematch that followed a summer 2018 fight that ended in a draw between the two.
Along with Paul's brother Jake, Paul and Olatunji are both YouTubers who have entered the world of boxing.
Paul rose to viral fame on Vine during the early 2010s and has a history of controversial behavior, most notably in 2018 when he uploaded a YouTube video that appeared to show a dead body in Japan's Aokigahara forest. He has over 23 million followers on his YouTube channel and hosts the podcast "Impaulsive," which has almost 3.5 million YouTube subscribers.
In June, the social media star participated in a hotly-anticipated exhibition match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and survived the full eight rounds against the veteran boxer but connected significantly fewer punches.
The Staples Center opened in 1999 and is the home venue for the LA Kings, the NBA teams the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers, and the WNBA team the Los Angeles Sparks. It will be known as the Crypto.com Arena starting December 25. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange company Crypto.com reportedly made a $700 million deal with AEG, the venue's owner, to snag rights to the arena's name for 20 years, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Paul has not publicly commented on Colbert's segment and a representative for him did not respond to a request for comment. Colbert did not respond to a request for comment.
Watch Colbert's full segment here.