"I wanna beat anybody I'm going up against" - Stephen A. Smith fires back at Dan Le Batard for accusing him of 'ending Skip Bayless' career'

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith responded to accusations made by former ESPN analyst Dan Le Batard's claims that he derailed Skip Bayless' career.

"I have never been, I am not nor will I ever be at war with Skip Bayless. That will not happen," Smith said on his own YouTube Channel, where he often discusses topics beyond his ESPN confines.

"Trying to be No. 1 is an entirely different agenda than trying to end somebody's career. I hope and pray that Skip Bayless is doing what he loves to do in talking sports for as long as he wants to do it. Do I want to beat him? Yes. I wanna beat anybody I'm going up against. That includes you, Dan."

Dan Le Batard, on his own YouTube channel, accused Smith of trying to end the career of Skip Bayless after "First Take" dominated sports debate programs.

"I want to talk about the war of this industry between Skip Baletss and his protege because if you think Woj (Adrian Wojnarowski) and Shams (Charania) have a rivalry, Stephen A. Smith wants to end Skip Bayless' career," Le Batard said.

Smith and Bayless took "First Take" to a higher level, and it's still running successfully after more than 16 years. It started as Bayless' show before going to a whole new level when he allowed Smith to co-host the program in 2012.

In 2016, the two hosts parted ways, with Smith taking over "First Take" while Bayless moved to FS1 to be the face of "Undisputed" alongside Shannon Sharpe.

The two shows have dominated sports debates, pioneering their own genre.

Stephen A. Smith overtakes Dan Le Batard on YouTube

Dan Le Batard came into YouTube two years ago months after the host was let go by ESPN. In that span, he was able to accumulate 161,000 subscribers and have almost 50 million views.

On the other hand, Stephen A. Smith as competitive as he can be among his contemporaries, started his own YouTube Channel only a year ago. Smith now has 324,000 subscribers, twice the size of Le Batard's subscriber count.

The total views of Smith's channel are at 43 million, and it shouldn't take long until he overtakes Le Batard in those numbers in the next few months.