Fact Check

Are Kanye West and Pete Davidson Fighting in a Charity Boxing Match?

Will Ye vs Skeet be the fight of the century?

Published April 1, 2022

 (Screenshot)
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Claim:
Kanye West and Pete Davidson announced on April 1, 2022, that they would be facing off in a charity boxing match.

April Fools' Day 2022 is upon us, and Snopes is here to separate the truth from the hoaxes. Send us questions, read our fact checks, and be sure to support the fact-checkers!

On April 1, 2022 (psssst, it's April Fools' Day), the website MixMag.net published an article claiming that comedian Pete Davidson and musician Kanye West had agreed to participate in an upcoming charity boxing match at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium.

After a long-running feud between two of LA’s most spoken about names in recent months, Kanye West and Pete Davidson are set to take part in a charity boxing match.

Speaking at a press conference in LA yesterday, both parties revealed that they will take part in a fight next month at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium.

This was not a genuine news story. It was an April Fools' Day prank.

While MixMag.net did not include any overtly obvious disclaimers identifying it as a piece of fiction, there were a number of giveaways that this article was a joke and not a genuine news item.

  1. The publication date: The article was published on April 1, 2022 (April Fools' Day).
  2. Lack of media coverage: This was the only website reporting on the supposed charity boxing match. If it were a genuine news item, it would likely have gotten tons of coverage from just about every entertainment publication in the country.
  3. Lack of official confirmation: The website claimed the event was scheduled for April 29 at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium, but that venue did not list this event for April 29, or any other date.
  4. Lack of public statements: Neither West nor Davidson made any mention of this alleged fight.
  5. The so-called "deleted Instagram post" is fake: The website claimed that West posted and deleted a message about the fight, but that didn't happen. West deleted all of his posts following a 24-hour suspension from Instagram in March 2022 after he used a racial slur to attack Trevor Noah and he hasn't used the platform since.

It was a bit suspicious, to say the last, that this alleged deleted IG post racked up close to 2.5 million likes before it was deleted, yet warranted not a single article in a reputable entertainment news publication.

While some people might relish seeing a boxing match between these two particular celebrities, no such fight was scheduled. It was a joke for April Fools' Day.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.