Good Week, Bad Week: Bella Poarch meets BLACKPINK, Battle of the Platforms loses $10m

As the dispute surrounding lack of pay for fighters from the Battle of the Platforms event comes to a boiling point, there has been tension between multiple parties this week—but some influencers have been making big career strides, instead.

Although the Battle of the Platforms fight event was hugely popular, for several weeks there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding lack of pay for fighters, and with Austin McBroom and Social Gloves suing streaming partner LiveXLive, it’s been a tense week for all involved. But, as always, there are some influencers that have been thriving over the past week.

Bad Week: Social Gloves reportedly lost $10 million

The ACE Family’s Austin McBroom is facing further scrutiny after a report from Billboard confirmed that Social Gloves — a trademark owned by McBroom — was out a whopping $10 million in wake of the Battle of the Platforms ‘YouTubers vs TikTokers’ boxing event last month. The report also claimed that Social Gloves had received backing from two significant names in the NBA, one of them being nine-time NBA All Star James Harden. Legal reps for Harden, TikToker Bryce Hall and McBroom are currently seeking revenue generated by LiveXLive, the platform that hosted the event’s broadcast, with Simply Greatness Productions filing a lawsuit against the streaming partner.

The Battle of the Platforms reportedly only sold 135,000 pay-per-view packages — a far cry from the 500,000 it would have needed to sell just to break even. While legal reps are looking at LiveXLive, others are turning a critical eye toward Austin McBroom, who allegedly signed off on a hefty budget without properly promoting the event. This news follows rumors of the ACE Family’s purported eviction from their $7 million home (which have been denied by both McBroom and wife Catherine Paiz), as well as numerous leaked lawsuits against the couple.

Good Week: Bella Poarch meets BLACKPINK

As one of TikTok’s most popular stars, Bella Poarch has been able to meet and collab with a huge range of different celebs over her time on the platform, like Valkyrae in the music video for her song ‘Build a B*tch.’ But now it seems she’s spreading her wings even further to meet with huge celebrities across the world, after fans spotted her hanging out with members from none other than the popular K-pop group BLACKPINK. In paparazzi images, Bella and members Jennie and Rosé could be seen talking together in a lobby, and then getting into a car together. https://twitter.com/kixrubyjane/status/1418056046061314054 So far it’s not clear what they were meeting up for, but some fans hope that it could be a music collab, after Bella said in an interview that her dream collab is Rosé. Others think they could be working on a TikTok collab together, as some of the members are quite active on the platform.

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Although not everyone was on board with the idea, it seems as though many are curious to see what the stars could be planning.

Bad Week: H3H3’s Ethan Klein debates xQc and Trainwrecks over gambling ethics on Twitch

Twitch has become a haven for all manner of new ‘metas’ — everything from hot tub streams to ASMR mics and leggings have skyrocketed as popular trends on the site in recent months. However, a more controversial subject arising on the live streaming site has been gambling. The issue of gambling broadcasts has become a buzzed-about topic across the platform, with names like Pokimane and Moistcr1tikal criticizing the “dangerous” streams in the past.

The ethics of gambling on Twitch recently came to a head after H3H3’s Ethan Klein kickstarted his new channel ‘H3 Live,’ where he facilitated a debate between streamers xQc and Hasan to discuss the matter. xQc argued that, if gambling streams are “dangerous,” then so are drinking streams like Mizkif’s noted ‘Fireball Fridays,’ with Hasan claiming that alcohol sponsors have to follow strict rules and claiming the two aren’t exactly comparable.

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In the end, the group moved on from the topic rather quickly, with xQc claiming they’d “progressed somehow” — but either way, their discussion further shined a light on a topic that continues to draw criticism across the net.

Good Week: Jake Paul launches anti-cyberbullying charity

While the youngest Paul brother has been known as somewhat of a troublemaker online in the past, over the last couple of years his shift toward boxing seems to have changed his image significantly. In an interview, the YouTuber even revealed that boxing “helped save [his] life” when he was feeling “lost” in LA, explaining that it got him on the “straight and narrow.” Now, Jake is combining his interests and has set up a new charity called ‘Boxing Bullies’ which aims to fight against cyberbullying.

The charity’s mission statement reads: “The mission of Boxing Bullies is to instill self-confidence, leadership, and courage within the youth through the sport of boxing, while using our platform, voice, and social media to fight back against bullying.” Many fans are hugely supportive of the project, seeing it as a step in the right direction for the YouTube star.

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With the lawsuit against LiveXLive ongoing and Austin McBroom already planning the next big fight event, it looks like it could be a busy few months for influencer boxers.