Viddal Riley rose to huge fame without having had a single professional boxing fight. All due to training internet phenomenon Olajide Olatunji (known as KSI on Youtube) for his first amateur fight against Youtube rival, Joe Weller.
Riley, was credited for transforming KSI from an overweight gamer, to someone who could deal serious damage inside the ring.
The 23-year-old cruiserweight guided Olatunji to victory in the biggest white-collar boxing event in history, in 2018. An event that attracted 21 million viewers on the day of the fight, and a further 25 million in the days after the fight.
The success of that event then led to a professional fight between KSI and Logan Paul, promoted by Eddie Hearn and broadcasted internationally on pay-per-view by Sky Sports and DAZN.
Riley, again oversaw KSI’s corner and trained the UK fighter to success with Olatunji winning by split decision in 2019.
Riley, had started his own Youtube channel in 2015 with a very small following. However, from training the biggest UK YouTuber, over the course of two years, it saw his subscriber count rise astronomically from less than 60,000 to his current 1.1m subscriber count.
While training KSI, Riley himself fought his first four professional boxing bouts. Winning all four and two by knockout.
Riley also kept himself busy by posting several YouTube videos and releasing four songs.
Despite his success on the internet, in a recent video, Riley emphasised that he is a ‘Boxer, YouTuber, Rapper in that order.’
Very few professional boxers gain the huge following that Riley has gained in their whole careers let alone at the start of their journey in the profession and he understands, ‘It’s something people haven’t seen before. It’s such a rare position that I’m in.’
Due to the unique rise of Riley, his internet brand has faced criticism from boxing veterans but he remained calm about the situation, ‘I wouldn’t want it any other way.’ He laughed.
However, Riley has always been touted as a potential British boxing star. In his amateur career, he won eight national championships, earned silver at the European Junior Championships and represented Team GB at the Youth Olympics. All in all, amounting an impressive 41-8 record at amateur level.
He became the first British boxer to sign for Mayweather Promotions in 2019 and fought on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs Adrien Broner in Las Vegas in just his second professional fight.
The Hackney-born fighter has big aspirations and has said that his coaching career is over as he looks to focus on his own career, ‘I’ve been boxing for 16 years, it’s time for the sport to pay me back. I’ve got things to do, I’ve got things to achieve.
‘I can be a world champion. The key to being a good world champion is not rushing to get there. I believe I can be the best cruiserweight in the world.’
The British fighter is set to enter the ring again on November 28th in the Staples Center, Los Angeles, on the undercard of Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr.
He faces Rashad Coulter in what is expected to be the biggest test of Riley’s credibility so far. Rashad is a UFC light-heavyweight, with an MMA record of 9-5 and a boxing record of 1-0.
Riley is aware he must remain unbeaten in order to build his rapport. ‘I haven’t earned the right to reminisce on achievements so far,’ he said humbly. ‘We have to keep the brand going and, by the time we get to that [world championship] level, hopefully I will have such a monstrous following.’
The Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr card is available to watch on BT Sport Box Office and Riley will set foot into the ring as the first fight on the main card.
By Sajidur Rahman
