Joe Fournier believes KSI would be beaten by both Jake Paul and Tommy Fury, as he claims the YouTube boxer deliberately elbowed him after realizing the stoppage would otherwise not come in their showdown.

The 40-year-old, a 9-0 pro who has shared the ring with David Haye in a 2021 exhibition, appeared to have been emphatically stopped by KSI in the second round of their eagerly-anticipated Misfits Boxing clash earlier in May.

But replays showed that the decisive blow was an illegal elbow, with the officials – the Professional Boxing Association – later ruling the bout a “no decision”. However, KSI was not deemed to have thrown an illegal shot intentionally and was therefore not disqualified.

Fournier, who visited the Daily Mail office to discuss the result, revealed that he was unimpressed with both his opponent’s demeanor outside the ring and his ability inside it, insisting that Tommy Fury – who joined KSI immediately after the fight – would comfortably beat . The YouTuber.

“No, he can’t win that fight – Tommy Fury beats him all day long,” Fournier told Mail Sport. “Fury is a real boxer. People talk about Love Island and maybe write him off, but I think Jake Paul is better than KSI and Tommy beat Jake Paul!

Fournier was knocked out by an illegal elbow and the bout was later changed to a “no decision”

“I think Jake Paul should actually be proud of his performance even though he didn’t win.

In six years he caught up with a professional boxer from a great boxing family. Tommy’s dad, Peter Fury, knows what he’s talking about; he is no dummy. He has been boxing all his life. Fury beats KSI and does it comfortably.’

KSI and Fury have now entered negotiations and are expected to fight later this year. Fournier’s fight contract did contain a rematch clause should the contest end in a no decision, but that can only be enforced by KSI – which he has said he has no intention of doing.

Fournier remains confident that he would be victorious in a rematch, especially if he was allowed to fight at 185 pounds instead of a depleted 180 pounds. And while he admits KSI had a truly impressive trait, overall he wasn’t blown away.

“We thought he was going to be very strong, but he turned out not to be that strong at all,” Fournier explained. “He doesn’t hit hard.

‘He was very quick; he’s faster than many professional boxers I’ve been around. He actually has tremendous speed, but he has no punch. He hit me with a bowling ball right hand with 10 ounce gloves on. I should have looked up at the sky.

‘You take any top 25 fighter in the light-heavyweight division, they beat you like that and it’s over. Even a middleweight, a Gennady Golovkin.’

He continued: ‘We knew it was difficult, but in the second round I started to get my timing. I gained a lot of confidence from the first round, because I realized that he has no power. The guys were knocking out kids and YouTubers, but I wasn’t paying attention at all. There is no power there.

Fournier insists he wasn’t impressed with KSI’s hitting power, although he admitted he was quick

The 40-year-old says Jake Paul (L) and Tommy Fury (R) would beat the YouTuber-turned-boxer

KSI and Fury had to separate when they met in the ring after the Fournier fight

KSI’s side of the story is, of course, different. The multi-talented social media star insists he won the fight comfortably and believes the “bowling ball’s right hand” left Fournier badly hurt and in trouble.

The YouTuber also questions why, after having success early on, he would throw away his opportunity to claim a victory over a professional boxer by choosing an obviously illegal shot. He claims it was anything but deliberate.

But Fournier isn’t buying it. Rather, he believes that KSI realized that his best shot had not resulted in the knockout he wanted, and therefore moved on to Plan B.

‘My true belief is if you can’t knock somebody out, and he knew you know it like a boxer when you hit somebody color on the chin and he’s still there, you kind of panic,” Fournier explained.

“You know at some point he’s going to start going down on me. It creates a little anxiety when you’re a beginner. And I think they practiced throwing the elbow when they were unsure. Underhook to lift you into it and throw the elbow .I think that’s what happened.

‘I saw the blow go past me and I relaxed. The next thing I know is the count of four, so I was out until then. I thought, “F***, he’s fast. How the hell did that left hook come back and hit me?”

“But I felt like it wasn’t a punch, so I thought he hit me? Six, seven, eight, I gather my thoughts and I think I can count. At 10, I’m thinking, no, it wasn’t a punch .I turn to my trainer and he tells me, “He just elbowed you!”

I went back to the locker room and everyone was yelling elbow and going mental. I could hear it all the way back while he was doing his push-ups. The crazy thing, to me, is that he just elbowed me, he’s obviously anointed the judges he basically pays them, so they do whatever he wants. There is no way they all missed it, the whole world saw it. And they celebrate? Are you celebrating cheating?

Fournier claims he believes KSI deliberately threw the elbow after failing to knock him out

The Briton reveals he heard shouts of “elbow” as he walked back to his dressing room

Fournier was not left to dwell on what he considered a great injustice for too long. The general secretary of the PBA, according to Fournier, quickly went into his locker room and told him that the fight would be changed to a no decision if he appealed.

The 40-year-old claims that the decision was wrong. “If this was a British boxing board fight, it would be a disqualification,” he says. But while it’s the final shot that will be remembered, Fournier insists even before the fight KSI and his team tried to level the playing field.

“The fight was originally agreed at 185lbs back in January, but they cut it down to 180lbs, which I haven’t fought at in seven or eight years,” he said. “They delayed agreeing to fight, even though they knew they were going to fight me.

“They sent camera crews to film me, but obviously he owns the content of the camera crew. So he could obviously watch me work out and see everything you do. They had them there for about five days, and its content! He owns it!

Fournier reveals that his training for the fight was disrupted by filming and media demands

So for five days you can’t really train properly. Then you have all the obligations for the media. They knew I trained in Miami; I could have agreed over zoom, but they made me fly back to England in the contract. There was no time where I could only train for more than four weeks at a time. They make all these games.

‘Even on the week of the fight we weighed in and then they had a rehydration weigh-in, like they were fighting for an IBF world title. It was like, what the hell? It’s a six-rounder against a YouTuber. I got there 10 minutes early and they made me wait 10 minutes! Every little advantage they would take.’

For now, even though he doesn’t agree with the final fight outcome, it’s one Fournier says he can live with. Still, the 40-year-old yearns for a rematch – even if it doesn’t happen next – and insists he would emerge victorious.

But if a second fight between the pair can’t be arranged, there’s another man who interests him a lot: Jake Paul.