The proposed bout between Jake Paul and Hasim Rahman Jr is now cancelled, it has been announced.
The two fighters were due to take each other on Saturday, August 6, at Madison Square Garden. It was to be Paul’s first professional fight since defeating Tyron Woodley in December.
The social media star was seen as a favourite for the match. Rahman Jr is the son of former heavyweight champion, Hasim Rahman, and also holds a 12-1 professional record. However, he was forced to take the Paul fight at short notice.
Hasim Rahman Jr wasn’t originally in the discussion to be the next opponent of Jake Paul. The 25-year-old was due to take on Tommy Fury, but visa issues forced the one-time Love Island winner to pull out of the contest.
A new opponent was quickly chosen, however. Paul was, therefore, ready to attempt to continue his unbeaten professional record. However, under a week from the date of the bout, their fight is now off.
Why has Jake Paul vs Hasim Rahman Jr been cancelled?
On Saturday night, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions confirmed in a lengthy statement on Twitter that the planned fight would not be going ahead.
The reason for this, they claim, is because Rahman Jr was not willing to meet the maximum weight limit of 200lb for the fight.
In addition, they say that Rahman had “offered assurance after assurance” that he was on target to meet the weight limit by the weigh-in. That had already been pencilled in for the date of Friday, August 5.
However, MVP continued: “On Friday, Rahman submitted a weight check to the New York State Athletic Commission that demonstrated he had lost less than one pound since originally signing to take the fight 24 days prior.
“This prompted the Commission to declare that it would not sanction the fight at less than 205lbs. Still, Jake Paul was prepared to move forward with the fight at this new weight.
“A new contract was sent to Rahman’s promoter, referencing a 205 lbs limit, imposing strict penalties should he fail to make weight.
“Upon receiving this new contract on Saturday morning, Rahman’s camp indicated, for the very first time, that he planned to weight 215lbs at the official weigh-in, and would not agree to weigh-in at 205lbs, and informing Most Valuable Promotions that they are pulling out of the fight unless the fight was agreed to at 215lbs.”
What have Jake Paul and Hasim Rahman Jr said?
Unsurprisingly, both fighters have very different accounts of why the fight has been called off.
Paul tweeted: “First Tommy [Fury] crumbled, and now Hasim Rahman crumbled. These boxers are the most difficult people to work with, and continually lack professionalism and confidence to fight me.
“I apologise to all of the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans.”
In a separate video message, Paul claims that Rahman “knows he is going to get knocked out by me”. He adds that he is “sick of it”, and “devastated” that the fight has been cancelled.
Rahman Jr, meanwhile, disputed the comments made by Paul’s team. He said: “Jake and his “team” cancelled this fight, not me! The fight isn’t happening on their accord, not MINE!”
He then claimed: “I been telling anybody who will listen, this man is a FRAUD and was ready to get EXPOSED. Nobody pulled out of a fight with this pussy, he just scared at the end of the day.”
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