So Paul and KSI are licensed to fight professionally?

Yes.

How do two YouTubers with no boxing experience get licensed?

As long as one is in good health, it’s not actually that difficult. An application for a license in California includes examinations by a general physician and specialists, including brain and heart exams. As long as the medical professionals have no reservations, the license is more or less rubber-stamped.

More difficult is getting an actual fight sanctioned.

Explain.

A license allows one to fight, but each individual bout still needs approval. The boxing commission learns what it can about the fighters, and requires licensed trainers to vouch for their training. There is often little or no information about boxers seeking their debut. For Paul and KSI, there was a professionally-filmed video of a previous fight.

Should this fight have been sanctioned?

“If they weren’t YouTube stars, this fight is still approvable in every commission in this country as debut athletes,” Andy Foster, the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, said in an interview. “I have some ability to know that these two are competitive with each other.”

The Association of Boxing Commissions guidelines say bouts should be approved if boxers are of similar ability in four areas: record, experience, skill and physical condition. In this case, Paul and KSI both have little boxing record, experience or skill to speak of, and are both in good shape.

Boxing promoters contacted for this story concurred, saying that YouTube stardom aside, this is often what pro debuts looks like: Two guys who trained hard flailing at each other.

In fact, the oft-cited example of a fight that many believe should not have been approved was Mayweather versus McGregor, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars.