KSI: Nate Diaz, other ex-UFCers declined fight

YouTuber turned boxer KSI said Tuesday he pursued a matchup with former UFC star Nate Diaz before agreeing to face Dillon Danis on March 29 in Manchester, England.

"We reached out to so many other fighters," KSI told "The Ariel Helwani Show," adding, "My team reached out to Nate Diaz because we wanted to show the world that, 'OK, Jake (Paul) beat Nate Diaz in the way that he beat him. Let me show what I can do.'

"Similar to what I did with Tommy Fury. Tommy Fury obliterated Jake. Everyone who watches that fight goes, 'Yeah, Jake Paul got his ass handed to him, and he lost.' Whereas with the fight with me and Tommy, everyone's there like, 'KSI should've won that. Tommy Fury shouldn't have won.' I showed the levels. I showed that I was better than Jake, and I wanted to do it again with the Nate Diaz fight. I wanted to fully knock him out. And then he said no."

KSI said he also tried to schedule boxing matches against former UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal, former UFC title challenger Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone, and former UFC interim champion Tony Ferguson to no avail. Masvidal was unable to take the fight because he's under contract with the UFC, while Cerrone and Ferguson turned it down, KSI said.

KSI said he eventually landed on the tilt with Danis, a former MMA fighter who lost a high-profile boxing match against Logan Paul in 2023.

"We're scrambling, like, 'All right, what are we gonna do? We need to try and find an opponent. We've got a date - March 29 - set, so we need to find someone,'" KSI said. "And eventually, (Misfits Boxing co-president) Mams (Taylor) comes through to me like, 'We got Dillon Danis.' And I'm like, 'Ah, great. ... You sure we don't have any more options?' And he was like, 'Nah, man, we're literally on the bare bones here.' So I was like, 'Screw it, let's just go, let's just have fun.'

"I finally get my hands on (Danis). Logan did his thing. I want to fully knock him out."

KSI added he thinks there's a chance a long-awaited matchup with Jake Paul will come to fruition in 2025.

"I'm pretty sure Netflix will see the Jake Paul-KSI fight and go, 'We need to do this. We need to make this happen,'" KSI said. "I imagine DAZN will also come into play. ... I feel like it has to happen. I want it to happen."