Hasim Rahman Jr. And Jake Paul Blame Each Other For Fight Cancellation
According to Jake Paul’s Promotional Company, Most Valuable Promotions, the Jake Paul-Hasim Rahman Jr. fight was called off because Rahman Jr. “deceived” the promotion, commission, and Paul about his weight.
The promotion canceled the bout and the entire August 6 event scheduled for Madison Square Garden in New York after Rahman Jr. asked for the bout to shift from cruiserweight (200 pounds) to a contract weight of 215 pounds.
This is the second straight time Paul has had a fight essentially canceled. Paul was originally supposed to face Tommy Fury, but Fury was unable to travel to the US due to reported visa issues.
Rahman Jr. was the fighter handpicked to replace Fury.
Most Valuable Promotions stated that Rahman reneged on the new contract weight and subsequently told Team Paul that “they are pulling out of the fight unless the fight was agreed to at 215 pounds.” As a result, they felt there was no option but to scrap the entire card.
“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone that has conducted themselves in such a deceiving and calculated manner,” the statement read. “Therefore, MVP is left with no choice but to cancel the August 6th event.”
Paul went on to share his personal thoughts on the whole situation in a pair of videos posted to his social media.
“This is just another case of a professional boxer, just like Tommy Fury being scared to fight me,” Paul said. “It’s as clear as day that these guys have been so unprofessional to work with, looking for any excuse to suck more money out of this event, to coerce us into doing things. From the jump, I knew in the bottom of my heart that this guy didn’t want to get in there with me. It’s clear as day.”
Paul also stated he knew this would happen from the start, claiming that Rahman Jr. never intended to make the weight, but when pressure got to him, he used it as an excuse to back out.
“The biggest payday of his life times 10 and he’s fumbling it,” Paul said. “For what? Because he knows he’s going to get knocked out by me. The pressure starts to set in. It’s exactly what happens with all of these guys. Same s— with Tommy Fury. I’m sick of it.”
Paul ended his video with an apology to the rest of the fighters who were scheduled to compete on the card, mentioning Amanda Serrano and Ashton Sylve in particular.
Yet again my opponents has pulled out of the fight… (1/2) pic.twitter.com/7ADOku3glx
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) July 31, 2022
Meanwhile, Rahman Jr. has come out to blame Paul as the reason the fight was canceled.
Rahman Jr. took to social media to refute the claims made by Paul and Most Valuable Promotions.
“I signed a contract to make 200 pounds within a three, three-and-half weeks that I had to do it,” Rahman said in a video posted to Instagram a few hours after the cancellation was announced. “But I couldn’t do it. I said my body simply would not let me do it. It would not let me get down to 200 pounds.
“But where in boxing do you see them canceling fights a whole week in advance? I didn’t even get my last week to get down as low as I could. I told this man, ‘If penalties are involved, keep the purse. Keep the purse. I’d fight you for the $5,000 minimum.’ That’s how much it means to me, and that’s how much faith I have in knocking him out.”
“I would’ve beat this man with one hand, just like I did in the gym,” Rahman continued. “But let him tell it, he already beat my ass in the gym when I was 230. So if you beat me up when I was 230, what’s the problem of fighting me when I’m at 215, what’s the problem of fighting me when I’m 210?
“It’s clearly been them not wanting to fight. It’s not me pulling out the fight. It’s them not wanting the fight. I never said that I didn’t want this fight. The only thing that I can conclude is they’re scared. They tried to drain me down. I told them I ain’t gonna be able to get all the way down to cruiserweight. It was an astronomical fee in and of itself from the beginning when they called me to spar for Anderson Silva. I told them what my weight was. I would have had to lose a pound a day for 30 days in order to make 200 pounds.”
Rahman said he came to the conclusion that Paul simply did not want to face a real boxer.
“Jake Paul could’ve fought a real boxer, but he don’t want to fight a real fighter.”