Nina Agdal is being slut-shamed online as part of Logan Paul and Dillon Danis' pre-match fight build up - and it's foul, writes Georgia Aspinall
As a sport, boxing has never particularly valued respect between competitors. Typically, grudge matches sell the best (in terms of pay per views) and thus the most successful boxers have often followed the fool-proof business method of calling out their desired opponent immediately after their last fight – usually while still in the ring – and then proceeding to attack them in media interviews, until said opponent bites and signs the contract to fight. The proceeding war on social media, and in press conferences, only adds to the hype – until the pair actually fight, and upon one person losing, shake hands and admit they really did respect their opponent all along.
It's such a popular tactic, that when influencers got involved in boxing in 2018 (putting on their own events and fighting each other, and outselling some of the most-watched professional boxing matches of all time) they took to it immediately, raising the stakes with their internet prowess and army of followers to turn what was once occasional jibes through the medium of BBC Sport to full on social media terror campaigns. For your most recent example, look no further than American MMA fighter Dillon Danis, who is due to fight influencer Logan Paul on October 14th – as part of an exhibition Misfits Boxing event that sees fellow influencer KSI take on boxing nepo-baby Tommy Fury.
Danis, who only has two professional MMA fights on his record (and none for boxing), has spent the last few weeks goading Logan – hoping to unnerve him ahead of the fight, and build that all-important tension to ensure viewers tune in for their match before Tommy and KSI take centre stage for the main event on the card. How has Dillon Danis done that? By terrorising Logan Paul’s fiancé, model Nina Agdal.
Nina, aged 31, is a Danish model best known for her Sports Illustrated campaigns alongside Chrissy Teigen and Lily Aldridge. Most recently, she appeared on Logan Paul’s podcast Impaulsive to talk about their engagement, and the couple opened up about how they’d gone to great lengths to keep their relationship private in order to avoid trolling.
‘I’ve been so intentional about keeping things between us, you are not an internet piece of clickbait,’ Logan said to Nina on the podcast. ‘You’re my everything. I don’t want to drag you into this shitstorm, it’s a f*cking hellhole online. You have to have iron skin. We posted our first picture together for our anniversary, and the comments are scathing, being so mean to Nina.’
Nina went on to admit that the comments on their anniversary post (mentioned above) were her first ever experience of being bullied, and it did get to her. ‘It is just not okay, people are negative for no reason,’ she said. ‘I’ll pretend like I don’t care, but it f*cking sucks.’
One can only imagine how she’s coping now then, the prime focus of Dillon Danis’ relentless online bullying. In an apparent effort to anger Logan, Danis has taken to posting topless pictures of Nina on his Twitter (we should note these appear to be consensually taken photographs from her modelling career) and pictures of her with ex-boyfriends, as well as seemingly every man she’s ever happened to be photographed next to. We should also note some of these images appear to be photoshopped. His intention seems to be to smear Nina’s reputation through slut-shaming, ultimately causing endless trolls to attack her. Right now, ‘Nina Agdal past boyfriends’ is a breakout search term on Google, as well as ‘Nina Agdal body count’ and ‘Nina Agal ex Leonardo DiCaprio’. Nina does appear to have dated Leonardo DiCaprio in the past, but it’s the search terms about her body count and ex-boyfriends in general that cause the most alarm – because it proves what Danis is doing is working, as do the hateful, misogynistic comments that fill his Twitter underneath any post about Nina.
It's disappointing enough to see a woman be ripped apart in a toxic ego battle between two men, but to see quickly the tide turned against Nina by virtue of a few photographs of her with men, it’s demoralising. Prior to Danis’ Twitter smear campaign, Nina was largely adored by Logan’s fans – the epitome of a sweet, loving partner that had captured Logan’s heart and got him through some of his darkest moments. And yet now, after Danis’ relentless posting, she’s become the prime subject of intense ridicule and sexism online.
It should go without saying that it doesn’t matter who, or how many people, Nina has dated in the past, nor does it matter whether she’s chosen to do topless modelling before, calling a woman ‘a whore’ – as Dillon has on Twitter – and using her sexual agency against her as though it somehow devalues her as a person, is disgustingly misogynistic. Influencer boxing might’ve brought more eyeballs to the sport, but it’s also escalated pre-match tension building beyond choice comments about a person’s sporting ability, into hateful and abusive tactics that often involve a fighter’s family unnecessarily. If this is where boxing is heading, it’s a sport few will respect in future.
Grazia have contacted Dillon Danis for comment.