The most important sporting event of the weekend wasn’t that little dust-up at Anfield - it happened in LA and involved two YouTube eejits you may never have heard of.
The Logan Paul Vs KSI “boxing match” may have lacked the glamour, skills and credibility of Liverpool against Manchester City at the top of the Premiership.
But if you are looking for where sport is heading, the sight of two “YouTube superstars” struggling to land a punch on each other for six rounds in front of an audience of teens watching on Twitch and Twitter was your biggest signpost of the weekend.
Between them, Logan Paul and KSI have 40 million followers on YouTube. They’re professional Idiots and pretty garbage individuals.
Idiot No.1 Logan Paul is best known for cracking jokes while pointing his camera at the body of a person who committed suicide - no, seriously - and Idiot No. 2 KSI has written an autobiography called; “I Am A Bellend”.
But they are wildly popular with millions of kids who will watch them make jokes about rape and suicide on YouTube.
And boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is a genius for realising that millions of people will pay cash to watch them try to beat the crap out of each other.
Hearn was - of course - slammed by rival promoters who were outraged that they hadn’t thought of it first.
Their first fight last year sold out the Manchester Arena and was declared the biggest internet event in history with around 22m viewers.
Fans who are used to more traditional sports may consider this Clash of the YouTube Morons a freak-show, a one-off for the kids who will pony up a tenner for any old crap on t’internet.
But this is the future, folks. Made for YouTube side-show acts that will grab a lot of attention, generate a lot of cash and drive the final few nails into what was once considered “sport”.
Think that’s a bit of an over-reaction? Well, we’ll soon be watching a soccer world-cup staged in mid-winter in an actual feckin’ desert.
And what is VAR but yet another step towards turning the Premiership into a Live Video Game for the YouTube generation - kids who want actual games to be more like the FIFA Football on the XBox.
Say hello to the future - we’ll be watching it on our phones.
Legend Gay got families to talk over big issues
For most people under 30 - or certainly 25 - the coverage of Gay Byrne’s passing must have been a little baffling.
If you came of age in the internet and social media era - you’ll never get just how important a figure Byrne was in the decades when your media choices were watch the Late Late Show or stare out the window.
And that is a big part of why his death has been such a huge deal for the older generation. Back when Gay was in his pomp, there was a lot wrong with this country and few people in their right minds would like to go back there.
But when we talked, we usually all joined in the one conversation. And Gay was the National Mammy. There would be a big issue - like divorce - and everybody would tune into the Late Late for the big discussion and you’d come away feeling a little bruised or confused but at least we’d had the chat about it.
In 2019 - when everybody’s their own media channel - the chat is never done.
This week...
This Week I’m Loving - Setting fire to stuff in the garden.
This Week I’m Dreading - The Smyth’s Toystore Catalogue.
