Salt Papi, real name Nathaniel Bustamante, is another social media celebrity who has taken to boxing. He has over 550,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 5 million followers on TikTok. The social media personality rose to fame through his challenge videos and by imitating famous Turkish chef ‘Salt Bae’.
Salt Papi is one of the most impressive influencer boxers. He has received praise and a push to join competitive boxing by many in the industry.
In early 2022, in an exhibition bout, he defeated Halal Ham via unanimous decision. Later, in August 2022, Salt Papi knocked out Andy Warski. In January 2023, he won via another KO against Josh Brueckner. He lost his first bout in May this year against Anthony Taylor.
Throughout his career, Salt Papi has gone through an extraordinary transformation. Fans were impressed with the change. One fan wrote, “Bro went from Salt Papi to Sodium Daddy.”
Bro went from Salt Papi to Sodium Daddy
— Ocho 🎱 (@TheOnlyOcho) October 10, 2023
Bro gotta make a fitness plan and become guru cause that’s insane
— SaintMUFC (@saintmufc) October 10, 2023
bro on roids
— Rich October (@richoctoberxo) October 10, 2023
Salt Papi is set to face fellow YouTuber Slim Albaher on October 14, 2023. Their fight is on the undercard for the ‘The PRIME Card’. Salt Papi vs Slim will be followed by the highly anticipated bouts of Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis and KSI vs. Tommy Fury.
Salt Papi claims boxing saved his life as he lost over 60lbs in a year
In his conversation with TalkSPORT recently, Salt Papi outlined his transformation. “I’m feeling very good and I’m ready to fight on Saturday night.”
The Filipino fighter oozed confidence as he said other influencers did not want to fight him. “Most of the influences are scared to fight me, that’s why I’ve been fighting professional fighters. That’s why I lost. But this time on Saturday night I’m gonna be fighting another influencer, so we’ll see how it goes.”
After his defeat to Taylor, Salt Papi has spent several months losing weight. He has tried to build an extraordinary physique.
Salt Papi has revealed that he’s lost “nearly 30kg” (66lbs) in his body transformation ahead of his fight vs Slim Albaher on the undercard of KSI vs Tommy Fury & Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis on Saturday night. [@talkSPORT] pic.twitter.com/Uf1p4AU2dW
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) October 11, 2023
“It’s like wrestling, but it’s real boxing, we actually put in the work,” Salt Papi explained. “I lost a lot of weight for this fight, about 30kg (66 lbs). I was quite overweight last year. But, because of boxing, I put in the work. I was like nearly over 100kg (220 lbs) last year. Now I’m nearly 70kg (154 lbs). Boxing is all I do now, boxing saved my life.”
Salt Papi is set to face Slim on the back of a defeat against Taylor in May. However, he is still the favorite to get the win on October 12, 2023.