Jake Paul Decided To Canceled The Fight Against Hasim Rahman Jr.
FightersTalkTV.com – The upcoming Saturday, August 6, should be a special day for boxing fans around the world, especially those who follow the YouTube star-turned boxer, Jake Paul. Regardless of like or dislike, they were looking forward to watching Logan Paul’s brother fight against a real boxer in the ring. And they finally got to see and prove on Saturday night that Paul’s roar on social media was as loud as his punch over his opponent’s face.
Jake Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) was set to fight against Hasim Rahman Jr. (12-1, 6 KOs) which was scheduled on August 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York. But unfortunately, the fans have to be waiting (again) after Paul and Rahman’s cruiserweight bout was canceled due to the weight dispute. This is the second straight time Paul has had a fight essentially canceled after his originally supposed to face Tommy Fury unable to travel to the US because of a visa issue.
Jake Paul canceled his upcoming fight against Hasim Rahman Jr., which was scheduled for this Saturday, August 6.
Most Valuable Promotion, which was co-founded by Paul, confirmed that the show would not go forward because of Rahman’s inability to make the agreed upon weight of 200 pounds. A statement from MVP says that Rahman weighed in at 216 pounds when he accepted the fight on July 7. They also claim that weekly weight checks required by the New York State Athletic Commission were “not made in good faith” and that Rahman had lost less than a single pound after more than three weeks.
A new contract was sent to Rahman for a 205-pound catchweight on Saturday, but Rahman’s team allegedly declined the new weight and voiced their intention to weigh in at 215 pounds.
“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone that has conducted themselves in such a deceiving and calculated manner. Therefore, MVP is left with no choice but to cancel the August 6th event,” reads the statement.
Because of this Paul and his team decided to cancel the fight.
“First Tommy Fumbled and now Hasim Rahman crumbled,” Jake Paul tweeted. “These boxers are the most difficult people to work with and continually lack professionalism and confidence to fight me. I apologize to all of the of the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans.”
In a video released on social media, Paul said: “Hasim Rahman Jr has pulled out of the fight. This is not a joke, I am devastated, I cannot f***ing believe this; we just found out this news. This is another case of a professional boxer, just like Tommy Fury, being scared to fight me.
“It is 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 and I knew from the jump that this guy didn’t want to get in the ring with me.
“The biggest pay day of his life times 10 and he’s fumbling it. For what? Because he knows he’s going to get knocked out by me. The pressure starts to set in and it’s exactly what happens with all these guys. I’m sick of it, I’m devastated and I apologize to everyone on the undercard. This is absurd but there’s nothing I can do about it; I apologize to the fans and I’ll be back at some point.”
Rahman Jr. responded on his tweet and blamed Jake Paul for the cancelation. He says that the cancelation is not on him, but Paul and his team who have pulled out of the fight.
“I didn’t even get a chance to hit the scale on 8/5 like the contract said,” Rahman Jr. tweeted. “How [is] the fight off on me when THEY cancelled the event.”
Rahman Jr. Blames Jake Paul For Cancellation and Claims YouTuber Is Scared Of Him
In combat sports it is relatively normal for fighters to cut weight closer to the fight, by losing water weight rapidly. Many fighters, particularly in MMA, use this technique in an attempt to gain a weight advantage on fight night — dehydrating themselves for weigh-ins and putting the weight back on quickly in time for the fight. Most likely these initial weight assurances were made to ensure Rahman Jr. didn’t try to dehydrate himself in this way, giving him a massive weight advantage over Paul.
Making 200 pounds was always going to be a long shot for the 6’3” Rahman, who has weighed as much as 269 for a bout and never weighed less than 211 3/4 pounds for a fight. Rahman weighed 224 pounds for his most recent bout, a fifth round stoppage loss to James Morrison in April. Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) weighed 191 1/4 pounds for his last bout in December, a sixth round knockout of Tyron Woodley.
The two rivals have since engaged in a back-and-forth row on social media with contrasting views on the cancellation. Anyway, if this is all about the weight issue, why does Paul should cancel the fight? Didn’t he ever tell Eddie Hearn that he would fight anyone at any weight?
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