Gary Payton II talks throwing up in his mouth.

Julen Lopetegui insists Wolves need to spend to avoid another relegation dogfight. The former Real Madrid manager has guided Wolves to safety with three games left, despite being bottom of the table at Christmas. He is due to meet chairman Jeff Shi before the end of the season to thrash out the club’s plans for the summer and beyond now their Premier League status is assured. Those talks will include discussions over his transfer kitty at Molineux after a season of struggle. “We have to be together in the same way, we want to improve. In football you have to want to increase your performance and squad. This is about investment too,” said Lopetegui ahead of Saturday’s trip to Manchester United. “I am going to have a long meeting with our chairman to hear him and hear what his ideas are for next year. This is going to be key for me. “That’s why I have to hear him and know first hand what his ideas are. After I will have more information to take a decision. “We have to improve and have to take advantage of the summer. If not we know the level of the Premier League; the first step is to hear him. “Afterwards we will take our decision about a lot of players. In the right moment I’m going to talk, first with the club and afterwards with the players about what is going to be our idea. “We want to improve, we need to improve. We have had a very hard year. We have to be ready to improve and be able to compete better in the next year. “We have to be ready. This year has been a very hard year for all, maybe it can serve as a lesson for all of us.” Lopetegui has no new injury worries for the trip to Old Trafford with Wolves 13th and 10 points clear of the drop zone. “United are a very good team, with top players, a good coach with a very clear idea in the way they want to play,” he added. “They are fighting to be in a good position to be in next season’s Champions League. This is a very difficult achievement.” Read More Football rumours: Newcastle revive interest in signing James Maddison Dwight McNeil says ‘nothing is done yet’ despite Everton’s huge win at Brighton On This Day in 2006: Theo Walcott lands shock England World Cup call-up Roberto De Zerbi believes Brighton deserve a European place Ruben Neves: It would need a catastrophe for Wolves to go down now Julen Lopetegui: Survival for Wolves will be my biggest achievement

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Before KSI, there was Olajide Olatunji – “JJ” for short. Before the YouTuber, gamer, rapper, boxer, promoter and energy drink magnate, there was the affable class clown in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. “I remember we did a production of Sweeney Todd,” one of his schoolmates tells The Independent. “He played the judge, and when he died at the end, he was twitching and doing the worm across the stage. Everyone was in stitches. He was funny, a nice guy – everybody liked him for that. He was popular, but not like, ‘I’m the s***’; he was confident but also a nerdy, endearing, sweet guy.” With those qualities, JJ was tailor made for YouTube, where he launched his channel ‘KSIOlajideBT’ in 2009 – four years after the platform’s inception. Fifteen years old at the time, JJ quickly garnered a following by filming himself playing Fifa – the famous football video game – at his parents’ house in Watford. His bewitching cackle was a key feature in each upload. “He always had that very distinctive laugh,” his schoolmate recalls. “I remember that. He would laugh at something during morning registration, and the teachers would be like, ‘JJ, please!’” By the end of 2009, Olatunji had amassed 1,000 subscribers. That number had tripled by the end of 2010, and Olatunji’s growth accelerated at a startling pace in 2011, as he reached 150,000 subscribers, and in 2012, when he crossed the million mark. JJ had become KSI – standing for ‘Knowledge Strength Integrity’ – and he would soon become arguably the most famous YouTuber in Britain. “When he started getting big on YouTube, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone,” this schoolmate says, “but you’d hear from certain people that knew him: ‘Oh, he’s definitely got a bit of an ego now. He’s not as sweet anymore, there’s an arrogance there, he talks about himself a lot. He used to be more engaged when he would talk to people.’” If the YouTube venture “made sense” to his peers, then so did his next move, when he released his first rap song in 2015. “I remember he’d written a rap to learn every element on the periodic table, and all the teachers were so impressed,” his schoolmate adds, but it was singing about supercars, after dropping out of school, that demonstrated how drastically KSI’s life had changed. His debut single “Lamborghini”, featuring P Money, peaked at No 30 in the UK chart. It has since been followed by numerous EPs and two studio albums. KSI’s next endeavour was less predictable, however. KSI ushers in the era of ‘influencer boxing’ “He was so sweet that no one would’ve said, ‘Oh, he’s gonna fight when he’s older,’” says his schoolmate. “When he did, it was like: ‘Oh, jeez. Well, I guess he can, so who’s gonna stop him?’” Popularity is not the synonym for likeability that some think it is, and KSI has long had his detractors. Wisely, however, he began to weaponise a widespread desire to watch him get punched in the face. In 2018, KSI fought in his first amateur boxing match, beating fellow British YouTuber Joe Weller via TKO inside three rounds, following a build-up that saw KSI mock his opponent for opening up on experiences with depression. KSI later apologised for his comments. Next for the Briton was Logan Paul, who in some ways appeared to be his American equivalent, and the pair fought to a draw in a sold-out Manchester Arena. The fight did a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys, leading to a professional rematch in 2019 – held at Los Angeles’ famed Staples Center, streamed on Dazn, promoted by Eddie Hearn, and won by KSI on points. Fighting on the undercard were world champions Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney, the latter of whom defends his undisputed lightweight titles against Vasily Lomachenko this month. The dynamic was disconcerting for most boxing fans, who accused the YouTubers of making a mockery of the sport, yet pop star Justin Bieber was present as the likes of Haney and Saunders were exposed to an entirely new audience – one that they would have otherwise never reached. Hearn, the most recognisable promoter in boxing, recognised that. Alongside Paul and the American’s younger brother Jake, KSI had ushered in the era of ‘influencer boxing’. KSI flourishes as new-age entrepreneur KSI, for his part, has mastered the art of self-promotion, but he is now trying to turn that outwards, too. Now 29, with more than 30 million subscribers, seven billion views and a reported net worth of over $25m, KSI returned to boxing in August. At London’s O2 Arena, he stopped rapper Swarmz and pro boxer (in loose terms) Luis Alcaraz Pineda on the same night. Notably, the event was the first staged by Misfits Boxing – a promotion created by KSI in partnership with the established Wasserman Promotions and streaming platform Dazn. Another more unlikely partnership followed, as the mutually antagonistic KSI and Logan Paul launched the energy drink Prime together. For reasons that – beyond the international awareness of the YouTubers – are difficult to discern, the drink flooded through the nation and off shelves, selling out in many stores and ultimately being banned in some schools in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa. It has, however, attracted sponsorship deals with Arsenal FC, the UFC and WWE, with KSI appearing alongside Paul at this year’s WrestleMania. Trying the drink on Heart radio, Gordon Ramsay said: “Oh, Jesus. It’s like swallowing perfume. What would I give it out of 10? A zero.” KSI came under starker criticism just last month for his use of a racial slur in a YouTube video, which led the 29-year-old to apologise and visit a Mosque in Bradford – an effort to educate himself on the matter. “There’s no excuse, no matter the circumstances,” he wrote on Twitter. “I shouldn’t have said it and I’m sorry. I’ve always said to my audience that they shouldn’t worship me or put me on a pedestal, because I’m human. I’m not perfect, I’m gonna mess up in life, and lately I’ve been messing up a lot.” Fighting into the future Fans will hope that KSI’s preparations for his next fight will keep him out of such trouble, though his progress has been gradual. His form is lacking, but his power is impressive. This weekend, he will test his attributes against Joe Fournier. The 40-year-old, a former pro boxer with a 9-0 record and an exhibition defeat by David Haye in 2021, got his start in the fitness industry before moving into the nightclub business. Perhaps those are areas for KSI to conquer one day; it would not be a surprise. For now, however, his boxing endeavour takes priority and takes him back to the O2 Arena. JJ had his school in stitches during a rendition of Sweeney Todd; KSI will hope to have Fournier’s head in stitches come Saturday night. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More KSI vs Fournier live stream: How to watch fight online and on TV this weekend Mark Zuckerberg wins first jiu-jitsu tournament, takes home multiple medals Why is BT Sport being rebranded to TNT Sports? Eurosport merger explained When is the KSI vs Fournier fight? Start time, undercard and more How to watch KSI vs Fournier online and on TV this weekend What is an exhibition fight and how is it different to a professional bout?

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The jacket that Michael Jordan famously and grudgingly wore while receiving an Olympic gold medal has been in Brian McIntyre’s possession for more than three decades now