'Simple' Simon Colbran insists fellow TikTok star Ed Matthews has only added to his motivation for their upcoming fight by insulting his family.
Fifty-two-year-old Colbran and Matthews, 20, headline a Kingpyn boxing event next Saturday at The O2 Indigo Arena in London. The fight was made after the TikTok duo became embroiled in a feud, with Matthews mocking Colbran for making videos with 21-year-old content creator Astrid Wett because of the disparity in age between the two.
Matthews has since involved Colbran's family in the fight by targeting his 18-year-old daughter Keeley. The 20-year-old gifted Colbran with a sex toy to pass on to his daughter when the pair met at a press conference to promote their fight last month, with a scuffle breaking out between them. Colbran said he wasn't bothered by Matthews' insults until he started to involve his family members.
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"He tried to get to me without using my family and it didn’t work because I get called every name under the sun," Colbran told Mirror Fightin I "He saw how close he was with my daughter Keeley and he knew it was going to get to me. As soon as you involve family it’s a different story. I’m going to stick up for my family all day long whatever happens."
Neither Colbran nor Matthews have competed in boxing before as they both make their ring debuts on the night. Colbran, a father of five, predicts a "crazy" build-up to the fight next week and said he has even been recognised by people in his local area ahead of the grudge fight.
"I think it’s going to go crazy, there’s so much hype around this," he added. "I went for a run today and a scaffolder ran up the road asking me for a picture. I was crossing the road and somebody shouted out the car saying ‘good luck I hope you win’. Everybody has got a hold of it so I think the lead up to it in London could go crazy.
"At the end of the day he called me out, I accepted. I don’t pretend to be a boxer but actually getting into the ring takes a lot of bottle, either side. I respect him for getting into the ring in the first place and hopefully he feels the same way. If that is the case we should respect each other, say ‘it’s all done now and finished’, that’s it and job done."